« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »

Washington Post repeats Boston Globe smear on Minuteman Project

Two weeks ago I offered "Boston Globe's Yvonne Abraham makes fun of Minuteman Project", which had that reporter repeating anti-Minuteman Project smears from a frequent contributor to the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists website (nefac.net). Needless to say, the reporter did not identify the source's affiliation, despite it taking me less than 10 seconds to find that using google.

I sent an email to their ombudsman, who said that either he or the reporter would be back in touch. Needless to say, I haven't received a follow-up.

Now, the Washington Post offers their own similar report in "On Patrol in Vt., Minutemen Are the Outsiders". And, it repeats the earlier smear, once again without mentioning who made it:

Then came their first official patrol two weekends ago, which was dogged by protesters who assembled downtown and shouted slogans such as "Take your hate out of our state." The Minutemen had to patrol a bike path away from town, and then -- as the Boston Globe reported -- got lost and had to ask a local for directions.

If a drunk in a Montpelier donut shop at 3am said that slogan, most people would tend to give it very little credibility. And, the same goes for someone associated with the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists. And, the same goes for the Washington Post.

Please send your thoughts to ombudsman@washpost.com.

Note also that the DUmmies discuss this article, resulting in "beam me up scottie" supporting Bush, cheap labor performed by serfs, and the Mexican government. On the American side, "hansberrym" is subjected to comments from bmus which, as he points out, are nothing but smears and the like.

"bmus" even reprints Xeni Jardin's smear in which she identified a non-MMP poster as coming from the MMP. When "hansberrym" calls him on this, this is the reply:

It came from Boing Boing's photos of Minute Men on the Mexican border. Are you actually suggesting that those Boss Hogs in camo wear are above that sort of thing? Right. Of course you are.

Ah, the lasting power of anti-American propaganda.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:55 PM | Comments (2)

Newest, lowest new low from Huffington Post?

Baby Blumenthal - son of Submarine Sid and nee "Max" - goes after Alito here. Well, not directly. The Alito he goes after is Judge Alito's son, currently a student at Colgate University. He points out this bit from Phil Alito's biography:

..I was born 9 months and 2 weeks later by a midwife/wolf named Janie Jean, who would prove very influential during my formative years. Shortly after, I became interested in politics and got involved with Gary Condit (not like that). I served as a parking aide to Nancy Pelosi (I won't even start on her) but was fired when Barbara Boxer came onto me.

If you read the link, you'll see that it's college "humor", the same variety engaged in by most college students (save for humorless prats). See also "Sliming Alito - and badly, at that" (redstate.org/story/2005/10/31/194827/79), which, while having nothing to do with the current case, is quite apt. Although at least they're going after the man himself with their smears.

Posted to Politics at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

TV stations misleading about assault at anti-Arnold rally?

Previously I offered "True face of Democratic Party: union thugs attack woman at anti-Arnold rally": she had her cap pulled off, she was beaten with signs, and one of the security workers ripped up her signs.

Now, speaking on KFI, the victim of the assault claims it was even worse than what was shown on TV. She says the pro-union forces also poured water on her head and threw things at her. And, she says that several TV stations must have filmed that.

Yet, only a small - but highly disturbing - segment of the attack was shown on just two Los Angeles TV stations.

She'll be appearing on Hannity and Colmes tomorrow night, so hopefully they'll be able to find the full footage from, for instance, Fox's local affiliate.

As I said before: if you're on the fence or you're a reasonable person who opposes these propositions for some reason, watch the video. And, send the link to the video to everyone else so they can see what the other side really is.

Posted to California at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

Arizona Daily Star supports amnesty for illegal aliens

The editorial "It's not 'amnesty' when the law is a shambles" is signed by a "D.J", but I have no idea who that is since there doesn't appear to be anyone with those initials in either the administration or editorial departments.

Be that as it may, they hit all the usual notes:

"Amnesty" is entirely the wrong word for any plan that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in this country. Amnesty is a pardon for political offenses, according to Webster's New World Dictionary, and the offense in this case is difficult to recognize. People who cross our borders without the proper paperwork do indeed violate the federal code. They are judged guilty by the thousands every week, usually through the rump court of practicality administered directly by the Border Patrol.

The easiest way to show they're full of it is to look at this:

But 11 million people do not establish themselves as an integral part of a national economy without the tacit approval of society as a whole. Businesses willingly hire illegal labor to save money; they can fend off blame, thanks to a system of enforcement that is broken. For their part, consumers reap the benefits of cheap and illegal labor without complaint.

Obviously, that's complete BS. The great majority of American oppose illegal immigration, and it's only through corruption, lies, and various shenanigans that its supporters are able to do what they've been doing.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 04:05 PM | Comments (1)

Another dirty trick by the anti-Proposition 77 forces

Those opposed to Proposition 77 (the redistricting initiative) have sent out a mailer to California Republicans marked on the outside with "Jury Duty" in big print and "Is good citizenship" below that in small print. Thus causing a larger-than-normal percentage of people to read what's inside, which turns out to be a misleading, anti-Prop 77 screed.

More on that here, and note that it's not known who perpetrated this. There's a picture of the envelope and other examples of dirty tricks here.

Posted to California at 04:00 PM | Comments (2)

Would you sneak into the White Sands Missile Range?

A couple years ago, I visited the White Sands Missile Range museum, right outside the gate of that military base. Obviously, it would be foolish for almost anyone who doesn't belong there to try to sneak onto that secure military facility.

"Almost anyone", because dozens of illegal aliens (i.e., citizens of other countries who have no allegiance to this country) have been caught working at secure military facilities. This is one of the few areas in which the Bush administration does workplace enforcement. But, if they did such enforcement elsewhere, that would reduce the number of illegal aliens available to work at such facilities, and there's also the worry that there are dozens more out there still illegally working at these areas, and some of them might not be such "kind-hearted folks". For recent cases, see the entries in this category or the recent article "US Missile Base Invaded by Illegal Immigrants".

Posted to Immigration_terror at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)

The Girls of CodePink

Shown here (direct link), Tiffany out of CodePink has a nice smile and a definitely nice pose. Her turn-ons include protesting, tofu, and Caribbean dictators. Turn-offs include the Bush administration, the Bush Crime Family, and traffic. She's got some mean hips. For those with "speciality" interests, another member of the organization is shown here.

UPDATE: I meant to include this before, but it's never too late for more sweetness and light. Another Code Pink babe's turnons include George Soros, gas-guzzling SUVs, and shopping. Turnoffs include accent reduction lessons, gas-guzzling SUVs, mean people, and unstylish clothing.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 06:42 AM | Comments (3)

California Border Patrol rally draws crowd, questionable editing

Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta held a rally in Sacramento yesterday in support of his proposed ballot measure to create a California Border Patrol.

According to the AP, about 1000 people turned out, 700 on the other side. The protest was "mostly peaceful", and the "underlining issue" was the Minuteman Project.

The same AP report is featured in these articles:

Calif. Border Police Plan Draws Throngs

Hundreds stage immigration rallies at Capitol

Rivals face off over border police issue

Unfortunately, all those cut off the end of the article, only mentioning a little about those on the wrong side. For what appears to be the full version, see "Border security attracts big protest, rally at Capitol". Here's the end, only part of which is featured in the other reports:

Peter Camejo, the Green Party's vice presidential candidate in 2004, led the counter-protest. He agreed the current system is not working, but said the other side's effort to seal off the borders is wrong.

"The American people need to know that only a tiny number of people are entering illegally," he said. "And these people are desperately needed by our economy. The Minutemen are saying that these people are criminal, but what they are refugees of poverty."

Participants in both events waved flags and chanted back and forth as horns blared and drums pounded. Signs read: "No bosses, no borders," and "Who's illegal Minutemen?" while the other side countered "Secure the border Mr. Bush, you're letting terrorists in."

Dave Kimball, 62 of Sacramento, was drawn into the counter-protest event, but said he was torn over the issue.

"There's got to be a better way of handling all of this," he said. "Both sides have points that maybe the other side would agree with."

Somehow, I think only a very small percentage of patriotic Americans would support what the other side wants if they positions were fully explained.

The WaPo report has "Green Party" changed to independent, which appears to be accurate. But Camejo is not just a former candidate of that party, he also ran as a socialist in 1976. And, here he says, "It is a hopeful sign for the Green Party that many of the [International Socialist Organization] members and Solidarity are helping the Green Party."

And, see his "thoughts" on immigration here:

Q: Do you support the proposal allowing illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses?
CAMEJO: The Europeans came over here illegally, they are 45% of our population. I say we let them stay and give them a drivers license. The people who have been here 20,000 years on this continent, desperately needed, no one is for them leaving, how can we not give them a drivers license.

He wants to end the distinction between "illegal" and "legal" immigrants, which, of course, would have the effect of declaring open borders.

And, take a look at the signs in the pictures from the first two reports, and you'll note that ANSWER was a prominent part. That group is, of course, linked to the Marxist Workers World Party.

And, of course, there are the other signs mentioned above, calling for "No Borders" and accusing the Minutemen of being "illegal". That latter is explicitly anti-American, showing no respect for our country and our laws.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:10 PM | Comments (5)

Kobach gets support in fight for Citizens Rights

Law professor Kris Kobach sued Kansas on behalf of several American students who paid full price for college educations that some illegal aliens were able to get at a discount. A district court judge threw it out, saying those students didn't have standing to sue, and Kobach is appealing.

Now, he's gotten some "heavyweight" help from the Mountain States Legal Foundation and the Washington Legal Foundation. Former Senator Allen K. Simpson and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) are involved as well. And:

WLF backed FAIR's claim that Kansas has denied the students' constitutional right to equal protection of the laws, and pointed out that DHS has refused to respond to two administrative complaints filed by WLF in New York and Texas, asking the Bush Administration to enforce the 1996 law.

Note the title of this post, because that's what this boils down to. Everyone should be concerned that the government wants to give illegal aliens a better deal than citizens.

UPDATE: There's more on this case here.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:04 AM | Comments (1)

Senate Selling American Jobs to Close Federal Budget Deficit

What? From this:

In a twist of logic so bizarre that it could only be hatched in Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a plan to increase revenues by selling over 368,000 American jobs to foreign workers and their families who will enter the United States and stay permanently. The proposal authored by Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA.) will be added to a larger deficit reduction bill the Senate will consider as early as next week. Under the plan, the fees employers pay for high tech, executive, and other employment-based permanent visas for foreign workers will rise, generating an estimated $120 million per year. The federal budget shortfall for the current fiscal year is projected to be in the neighborhood of $400 billion...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 04:43 PM | Comments (1)

Virginia governor candidate Tim Kaine spins, misses on pro-illegal immigration stance

The WaPo reports on a new ad from Republican Virginia gubanatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore in "Ad Attacks Kaine on Immigrant Issues". Obviously, it should be "illegal immigration issues", but, well, that's just how the WaPo sees things.

"Illegal immigration: a growing crisis," the ad's narrator says. "Kaine favors taxpayer-funded job centers and supports in-state tuition discounts for illegals. Taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants? What part of 'illegal' does Tim Kaine not understand?"

They object to that ad:

But Kaine's campaign aides said the ad distorts the facts. The Democrat has said local governments -- not the state -- should decide whether to use public funding for day-laborer sites, such as the one that was approved in Herndon in August, the aides said.

That's just a dodge. Kaine could blame local Herndon officials, as well officials in any other town that decided to spend public money helping illegal immigration gain a foothold in their communities. Someone needs to take a stand, and Kaine isn't up to the task.

And they said that Kaine opposes in-state tuition for immigrants in the country illegally. He would make an exception for tax-paying immigrants brought to the country by their parents and educated in the state's public schools, provided they were seeking to legalize their status. Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) vetoed a bill that would have barred illegal immigrants from the tuition benefits in 2003 because it did not grant this exception.

So, under the Kaine plan, millions of illegal aliens could bring their teenage children here, stay a while, and then as long as they made an amorphous pledge get discounted college educations?

And, since there are only a finite number of such discounts available, what would Timothy Kaine say to those American citizens who had their discount taken away by a citizen of some other country?

Previously: "VA: Kilgore, Kaine pledge to crack down on illegal alien employers" and "WaPo Virginia poll: only 8% support illegal alien hiring halls".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:54 AM | Comments (2)

"LA County needs to spend $50 billion on upgrades, engineers say"

One of the subtitles to this story should be: "Los Angeles County experiencing wonders of massive illegal immigration, almost all of it from the Third World."

This is also one of the causes:

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills... said that under former Govs. Edmund G. Brown and Ronald Reagan, infrastructure projects comprised 15 percent of the state budget. Today, he said, it represents less than 3 percent.

However, we just can't continue to live in a fantasy world controlled by the far-left and socialists, some of whom have questionable loyalties to this country. Here's one example, and here's another.

From the article:

With crumbling streets, gridlocked traffic and mounds of trash, Los Angeles County's deteriorating infrastructure needs $50 billion in upgrades over the next five years to meet growing demands, a statewide engineers group said Thursday.

Of nearly a dozen infrastructure systems studied, the county's streets, highways and urban-runoff systems received the lowest grades - D's - while its solid-waste system got a B-plus. Flood control, wastewater and port systems got B's.

Giving the county an average grade of C-plus, the American Society of Civil Engineers warned that significant problems are on the horizon for the infrastructure unless there are changes in attitude and funding.

"If the county doesn't begin to make repairs now, if there is a failure, it could cost five times what we are talking about," said Harvey Gobas, chairman of the Los Angeles County Infrastructure Committee and past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Los Angeles.

The report card, released at the group's annual meeting at the University of Southern California, comes as population growth increases pressure on county facilities, despite millions of dollars in recent improvements.

Gobas said traffic and landfills are among the most pressing problems.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 03:03 AM | Comments (1)

Al Gore has a blog

Here's the official blog for President Al Gore.

It doesn't appear to be written by a staffer:

Burritos woke me up. Damn. But the time was 12:34am. Cool, 1234! Tried to wake Tipper up to show her. By the time she finally woke up it was 12:35. Damn. Now I have to wait until 1:23am. If I don't show her by 4:56am, 5:67am won't work because there's no 67 minutes. Why isn't time metric?

Posted to WackyHumor at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

Rat lovers unite!

Can you count the problems with this site I stumbled across? Let's count them down:

- It plays music without you giving it permission.

- I wonder about that "e*PetBay TM" at the top. Trademarked? Really? I wonder what "eBay" would think about that.

- "RatsAreUs"? I know ToysRUs had a bit of trouble, but did they stop defending their marks?

- IT'S GOT A BIG PICTURE OF FRIGGING RATS.

Posted to Miscellania at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

True face of Democratic Party: union thugs attack woman at anti-Arnold rally

Yesterday the anti-Arnold forces held a rally in downtown Los Angeles. It featured Antonio Villaraigosa, Fabian Nunez, and, in the crowd, lots of union members and one lone Arnold supporter.

Read the report in "UNION THUGS attack Schwarzenegger supporter at Villarogosa rally in Los Angeles - VIDEO!!!". The video is of a KCAL report from Carter Evans, and it's available in this 10 Meg WMV file.

If you're on the fence, or you're a reasonable person but you oppose Arnold's propositions for some reason, you need to see this video.

From the reporter's voiceover:

Opponents tried to hit her with their signs, and some blocked news cameras as she argued her point. The crowd turns quickly, grabbing her signs and tearing them up, even a woman wearing an orange security vest angrily rips up the Vote Yes signs.

Someone wearing a 'Unite Here' T-shirt reaches down from the stage and grabs the victim's cap off, and she has to reach back to grab it back. And, I saw at least one person put her hands on the victim. The victim is white, and the security person mentioned above is black. But, almost everyone else surrounding her was Hispanic.

Hopefully she'll file a police complaint about the possible assault and, while I'm extremely doubtful, perhaps it could even be prosecuted as a hate crime.

This is the face of the California Democratic Party and the opposition to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it is not a pretty sight at all.

UPDATE: There's a press release on this assault from the California Republican Party here.

For more, see my collection of links on the Special Election.

UPDATE 2: Now linked by the COTB.

Posted to California at 04:16 PM | Comments (2)

Democrats fail to capitalize on massive Republican incompetence

Considering all that's been going on for the past few years, you'd think the Dems would get a clue and be able to come up with a way to capitalize on things like Iraq, Katrina, massive illegal immigration, cronyism, corruption, indictments, etc. etc.

Yet, they haven't been able to do that as a new poll shows: "Public has had it with both parties":

...The Battleground poll – unique for its inclusion of top Democrat and Republican pollsters – shows a definite slide in support for President Bush and the GOP. But the survey contains little good news for Democrats as a viable alternative...

While a Republican retreat in the polls normally means good news for Democrats, there is little evidence Americans are enamored with the opposition party, survey results indicate. On a host of issues – Iraq, homeland security, the economy – Democrats don't fare much better, the poll indicated.

"There is a real void right now in terms of what the alternative is. And right now, Democrats suffer from the fact that Americans are disillusioned and distrustful of government in general," Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Voice Of America. "They tend to be feeling more negative about the Republicans, but not particularly positive about the Democrats."

..."But the Democrats, whether you look at the image of the Democratic Party, whether you look at Democrats in Congress, not only did not gain anything, they actually had their negatives go up some during this period of time," [GOP pollster Ed Goeas] told VOA...

In marketing terms, this is like people finding both Pepsi and Coke unyummy. And, what happens? Generally, one of three things:

1. People just stop buying soda...
2. A new alternative enters the scene to grab market share...
3. Either Pepsi or Coke changes to meet expectations...

#1 is the worst option for the country; we need political leadership and having two corrupt, non-representative parties sharing power is not good.

#2 isn't out of the question, and it's been done before. At the least it might force Coke or Pepsi to change their formula and leadership.

How likely is #3? Probably not much. Both parties are tied to their respective gravy trains and tied into their own curious ideologies. For instance, John Kerry would be president now if he'd came out strongly against illegal immigration and Bush's employment policies: he would have won both Ohio and Arizona and thus the presidency on those issues. Given the choice between winning and pandering to far-left racial groups, he chose the latter. Likewise, there's too much money available from large corporations to drag someone too far from Bush's pro-business policies.

Posted to Politics at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

Gray Davis now "resource" at UCLA

Disgraced and recalled former California governor Gray Davis is joining the University of California Los Angeles as a "distinguished policy fellow."

Davis, who is also an attorney, will serve as a guest lecturer in classes, participate in panels, and generally serve as a resource for faculty and students on issues involving California state politics at UCLA's School of Public Affairs, department spokesman Stan Paul said Thursday.

Posted to California at 09:25 AM | Comments (2)

Kennedy-McCain gets Mexican government stamp of approval

If the government of Mexico had to choose, they'd take the immigration "reform" legislation proposed by (U.S.) Senators John McCain and Teddy Kennedy.

Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar today said the bipartisan proposal is the one that comes closest to what Mexico wants... Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez discussed such issues yesterday during meetings in Washington.

No doubt those two fine Senators welcomed this endorsement of their proposal. While we don't want to engage in guilt by association, many other people also endorse their scheme, and many of those are a bit shaky on that whole patriotism thing.

Note also that our amigos seem to be playing both sides of the artificially-created street: "Mexico approves of Bush Temporary Worker Scheme".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:55 AM | Comments (1)

Backstage at the Huffington Post

While struggling to understand this web thingy, sexy Greek siren/Web entrepreneuse Arianna Huffington seems to have put part of her site behind a secret, members-only wall.

If you go to their Newswire Archive, at the present time you'll see links to this week's coverage and a search box. What you will not see are links to monthly or weekly archives, such as, oh I dunno, people might want to actually look at.

When you search for something, it asks you for your password to the "Huffington Post Backstage", which appears to be located at build.huffingtonpost.com.

This blogger claims to have received a hit from there, and speculates that it might be a secret area for them to scheme over their next far-left inanities and insanities. Maybe even George Soros has an account there. Maybe it's even the online home of the New World Order.

Needless to say, those past archives might be of use to their users, plus having links like that will help search engines find their way to those pages. The corresponding search form on the blog side actually works, and I was also able to access old blog posts using their tags system. You can also access them using the poster's name which is included in each post, making them easy to spider by SE robots.

I worry about the PR of pages that SEs can't get to, especially since a few of them contain links that I placed there. All on-topic and of interest of course. The HP main index has PR7, the news/blog indexes have PR6, and a few old blog pages I looked at had PR3 with one from the siren herself at PR4. But, I wonder if those old news pages have much PR at all.

Posted to Bloggage at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)

"Congressional delegation wants action on immigration policies"

From this:

Upset with what they say is the federal government's failure to prosecute illegal immigrants, the entire 19-member California Republican congressional delegation has asked the U.S. attorney general for a meeting to discuss the matter.

In an Oct. 20 letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, the Congress members also criticized the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego for what they called its "lax prosecutorial standard" of only prosecuting those illegal immigrants with two felony convictions in the San Diego District.

"We write to request a meeting with you to discuss our frustration with the current policies within the Administration related to the prosecution of criminal aliens," the letter states.

The letter goes on to say that too often, illegal immigrants who should be jailed instead benefit from "the current practice of 'catch and release.' "

The Republicans' letter to Gonzalez appeared to be the latest sign of a growing level of conservative Republican frustration with the Bush administration on several issues, including what they say is its failure to enforce the country's immigration laws.

Last week, nearly one-third of the House's 231 Republican members sent a letter to President Bush, saying that if he expects to get their support for a temporary guest worker program, he first needs to clamp down on illegal immigration by strengthening the nation's borders and enforcing immigration laws.

Reached by phone in Washington on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista ---- one of the signatories of the letter ---- said that he and other Republican members of Congress took a more diplomatic approach with the Bush administration until late 2004.

"Before the president was re-elected, all of us felt what we had to say had to be said behind the scenes ---- and it was," Issa said...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:27 AM | Comments (4)

Richmond Kentucky halts plan to issue ID cards to illegal aliens

From Richmond postpones immigrant ID program amid confusion:

A "misunderstanding" between city officials and a migrant outreach has delayed a controversial plan for the city to offer identification cards to immigrants.

"We were under the impression it was for legal residents," City Manager David Evans said Monday. "The Hispanic outreach office wanted it to be offered to everyone," regardless of their immigration status.

The city is asking federal immigration officials for an opinion on whether the program conforms to agency regulations. National experts said last week Richmond would be the first municipality in the country to offer immigrant ID cards...

Oddly enough, I have trouble believing Evans. However, I have no trouble believing that almost all "Hispanic outreach offices" would be willing to put their race above this country's laws. The AP also says this:

The cards would help immigrants do things most people take for granted, such as writing a check in a store.

Awww... What sort of mean-spirited xenophobe would deny "immigrants" their right to do things "most people take for granted"? Note, of course, that the AP doesn't go in to all the downsides of this scheme.

Send an email to feedback *at* ap.org and let them know their bias is leading them to be an even more inaccurate source. The earlier article "Hispanic advocates press for ID cards" has some more interesting quotes:

[Mayor's Hispanic Workforce Development Task Force co-chair Alayne White says:] "It clearly is a very sensitive issue... When you bring up the issue of not having documentation or being here in the country illegally, that stirs passion in people."

Well, obviously people are going to get slightly upset when they see local officials doing something that would probably be against federal law and would allow local businesses to make money off illegality. Just slightly upset. Of course, on the other side, this also stirs up race-based passions:

[Josh Santana, attorney and president of the Lexington Hispanic Association says:] "Some of the opposition is rooted in bigotry. Some of the opposition is rooted in fear. Some of the opposition is rooted in the concept that we're rewarding folks for having done something wrong," he said. But issuing the cards is "the just and right thing to do... We as a society have a moral obligation to do what we can to protect those God has placed in our midst," Santana said.

A hat trick to Josh, as he scores with the race card, the xenophobic fear card, and the churchy card all in just two paragraphs. One might think those "immigrants" just fell out of the sky into their city, when in actual fact they were pulled and pushed there by corrupt politicians, corrupt businessmen, and the corrupt oligarchy of Mexico.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)

WalMart: no more "undocumented" workers for us!

Our guiding light Insty links to the site walmartfacts.com for some reason or other. Doing a search, our crack team came upon this bit:

We have been such a successful retailer because we focus our efforts on running our stores. Like many companies, we entrust our suppliers and contractors to do the hiring - and that means hiring only documented workers.

Wal-Mart has literally thousands of service and product suppliers - and it just is not feasible for us to verify documents for every employee in every outside company.

...Wal-Mart did not profit in any way from the use of undocumented workers...

Since the raids, Wal-Mart has terminated all of its contracts with outside cleaning contractors. In addition to lowering costs, this move will give Wal-Mart greater control in verifying employees' documentation.

They're also sorry that some of those illegal aliens were allegedly abused while allegedly locked in their stores.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:18 PM | Comments (1)

Janet Jackson sunbathing... nude!

Unfortunately, some sites seem to have taken down the video since they don't want to get sued. However, I don't think linking to sites that have the video should get me in too much trouble, so here, here, or here. For a JPG preview, try this. How do we know that's not Michael?

If any of those links stop working, please find one that does and leave it in the comments.

Posted to Celebrities at 04:39 PM | Comments (1)

Jerry Kilgore for Virginia governor

WashTimes

Eleven days from now, Virginia voters will choose between two starkly different candidates for governor: The Republican nominee, former state attorney general and state secretary for public safety, Jerry Kilgore, is an energetic conservative and a proven leader who has worked tirelessly to make Virginia a safer place by bringing lawbreakers to justice. He has also proven his willingness to challenge those in his own party (particularly the Republicans-in-name-only who dominate the state Senate) who seem obsessed with the idea that Virginians need tax increases. The Democrat, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, isn't steadfast. Listening to him, as he attempts to reconcile and explain the various positions he has taken on issues such as abortion, taxes, illegal aliens, capital punishment and homosexual "marriage," can be something of an ordeal. At times the former Richmond mayor sounds like he would be more comfortable running for statewide office in Massachusetts or New York. For his part, Mr. Kilgore would bring a solid record of accomplishment to the governorship...

Posted to Politics at 02:47 PM | Comments (1)

A Nigerian 419 scam with an uppercrust British accent?

Here's an email I received from a undoubtedly nicely-dressed young lady with an email address at bblfinancial.com:

My name is Catherine Jennings I work with the Private Banking Division At Berkeley Bank Limited, London. We are conducting a standard process investigation in relation to matters involving a client who shares the same name as yours (Kessler) and also the circumstances surrounding investments made by this client at our bank.

Our Berkeley Banking client died intestate and nominated no next of kin to inherit the title over the investments made with our bank...

1-Are you aware of any relative/relation who shares your same name whose last known contact address was in Brussels ?

2-Are you aware of any investment of considerable value made by such a person at the Private Banking Division of Berkeley Bank?

3-Can you establish beyond reasonable doubt your eligibility to assume status of next of kin to the deceased?

And, the reply-to address is indeed at bblfinancial.com, which if you go there redirects you to bbloffshore.com, which looks like it might be the real site of a real bank. In fact, they're even listed in the Yahoo directory.

However, I'm going to say there's about a 95% chance this is a scam. Gone are the days of ungrammatical and downright weird 419 letters. While there are a few foreign locutions in the email ("Sincere Greetings" leads it off, and they capitalize "At"), I give this attempt to scam an B+. I also took points off because my name's not Kessler.

Posted to Miscellania at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

State and local police can enforce civil immigration violations

Any time a state or local official says they can't enforce civil immigration violations, send them this:

Bowing to pressure earlier this month, The U.S. Department of Justice released a 2002 legal memorandum revealing the department's official position on state and local enforcement of federal immigration law. To the chagrin of many, the memo's author, then Assistant Attorney General, Jay S. Bybee, says state and local police possess the inherent right to enforce civil violations of federal immigration law. The Assistant A.G.'s memo concludes it is "unreasonable" to assume Congress intended to deprive the federal government of "whatever assistance States may provide" in identifying and detaining individuals who have violated federal immigration laws... In other words, the Department of Justice believes state and local police are entitled to act when they believe federal immigration laws are being violated...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:48 AM | Comments (1)

CORRECTION: Cute little Japanese sexrobot

CORRECTION: Earlier I had a post here in which I said that Japanese scientists had invented a new sexrobot that would do anything you want. I discussed how this is a frequent theme in Japanese culture, which can get quite disgusting at times. And, I said that the control helmet lets someone remote control the robot and make it turn left or right - and do many other things - even if the robot has other ideas. That post was in error.

In fact, a new translation reveals that the lady above is actually Associated Press business writer Yuri Kageyama. She's testing out this new helmet, which has no naughty uses whatsoever. In fact, they expect it to be used for games, the second-most popular Japanese obsession behind perversion.

This process is actually called "galvanic vestibular stimulation", and not mangasexcontrol like I said earlier.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons.

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head — either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.

I apologize for the error.

Posted to WackyHumor at 03:20 AM | Comments (0)

"Labor's Hurricane George"

From Froma Harrop:

New Orleans offers a quick study of Bush labor policy in action: On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina strikes, causing widespread destruction. Four days later, President Bush commits $10.1 billion of the taxpayers' money to rebuilding New Orleans. Four days after that, he suspends the Davis-Bacon Act — the law that requires federal contractors to pay workers the going local rate.

Illegal immigrants, willing to work at less-than-prevailing wages, stream into New Orleans. And a mere six weeks after the last evacuee leaves the Superdome, we hear of complaints by illegal workers that employers are stiffing them of their meager pay.

So here you have it, a lesson on how to crush the market for blue-collar labor. And it could have been done in four PowerPoint slides...

There's only one sane explanation of why Bush would try to lower wages in a tight labor market: He intended all along to flood the market with cheap foreign workers.

It's a simple setup: (1) Get rid of Davis-Bacon, so contractors can offer below-market pay that Americans and legal immigrants won't touch; (2) continue to disregard the law that forbids companies to hire undocumented workers; (3) when people complain that the workers restoring New Orleans are not legal, say that they are taking jobs no American wants.

The one price that may never rise, in the Bush mindset, is the price of labor. Companies must cope with rising costs for energy, drugs or land. If they can't deal with it, they go out of business. But cheap labor is somehow an entitlement...

The other sweet thing about this (for the Bush administration and other "free" marketeers) is that the Dems are too p***y to say anything about this. After all, what if MALDEF calls them "mean-spirited"? Or, what if the National Council of The Race says they're xenophobes? At all costs, the Dems must sell out American citizens to far-left race-based groups with questionable loyalties to this country.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:48 PM | Comments (2)

Bush reinstates Davis-Bacon on Gulf Coast

Shortly after Katrina, Bush lifted the Davis-Bacon Act, a union favorite that provides a prevailing wage for workers on federal contracts. Grover Norquist was one of those pushing for the suspension.

Now, our president has reinstated D-B.

Around the same time that he suspended that Act, Bush also suspended fines for those who hired illegal aliens.

That gave the green light for illegal aliens from other U.S. states as well as from Mexico to swarm in to the Gulf Coast to take rebuilding jobs.

Perhaps those Republicans who say they favor a D-B suspension because they're thinking of the Katrina victims will come out against illegal aliens taking rebuilding jobs from those victims.

And, perhaps those Dems who complained about D-B being suspended will speak out about this as well.

Uh-huh.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

What USA Today wanted to do to Condi Rice's picture

This was what they planned for the web version of their article:

Posted to WackyHumor at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)

Introducing... Grob!

Michael Chumley, pictured above, illustrates a new insect species that he's named "Grobs". These beasts, fearsome and disgusting though they may look, are currently being investigated as a major food source. They're high in protein and vitamins and they eat just about anything, including waste products. Don't worry though: you won't eat them whole. They'll be ground up and used as a filler product in hamburgers, hot dogs, and various other processed and extruded food products. Chumley is currently arranging with various U.S. fast food outlets for a 2006 "crawlout" throughout the nation.

Posted to WackyHumor at 06:45 AM | Comments (0)

"Did CIA run a covert op against an elected president?"

I haven't been following PlameGate, so I don't know whether this is something that could be true or whether it's part of the defense:

The media version of the CIA leak case is that the White House illegally revealed a CIA employee's identity because her husband, Joseph Wilson, was an administration critic. But former prosecutor Joseph E. diGenova says the real story is that the CIA "launched a covert operation" against the President when it sent Wilson on the mission to Africa to investigate the Iraq-uranium link. DiGenova, a former Independent Counsel who prosecuted several high-profile cases and has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, including as counsel to several Senate committees, is optimistic that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will figure it all out.

DiGenova tells this columnist, "It seems to me somewhat strange, in terms of CIA tradecraft, that if you were really attempting to protect the identity of a covert officer, why would you send her husband overseas on a mission, without a confidentiality agreement, and then allow him when he came back to the United States to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times about it."

That mission, he explained, leads naturally to the questions: Who is this guy? And how did he get this assignment? "That's not the way you protect the identity of a covert officer," he said. "If it is, then [CIA director] Porter Goss is doing the right thing in cleaning house" at the agency.

If the CIA is the real villain in the case, then almost everything we have been told about the scandal by the media is wrong. What's more, it means that the CIA, perhaps the most powerful intelligence agency in the U.S. Government, was deliberately trying to undermine the Bush Administration's Iraq War policy.

Obviously, we don't want the CIA to do such things as that's a threat to the Republic. But, then again, the Bush administration isn't exactly a big friend of America either.

Posted to Politics at 03:40 AM | Comments (0)

California ranked 46th in education

The "Education State Rankings" from Morgan Quitno Press has ranked the 50 states on education: States were graded on 21 factors, including student achievement and attendance, positive outcomes, strong student-teacher relationships and school district efficiency... number of high school graduates, reading, writing and math proficiency, percent of school-age kids in public schools, high school drop out rates, student-teacher ratios and class size.

I've never heard of that Press or their survey before, but I suspect there's some hidden agenda at work somewhere in it. Nevertheless, here are the top five:

1. Vermont
2. Connecticut
3. Massachusetts
4. New Jersey
5. Maine

New Jersey? These top rankings might have something to do with the way their school districts are structured, by city rather than by county. Or, perhaps it's all that snow. Anyway, here are the bottom ten:

41. Tennessee
42. Hawaii
43. Alabama
44. Alaska
45. Louisiana
46. California
47. Nevada
48. New Mexico
49. Mississippi
50. Arizona

Note that while California lost out to Alabama, at least we're still ahead of Mississippi. Whoo! And, note also that four out of the five worst states have something in common: they're destinations for huge numbers of illegal aliens.

That, of course, has something to do with it; without them California would probably be near the top. Of course, you will never hear any liberals talking about that. Better to be worse than Alabama than to be called "mean-spirited".

Posted to California at 11:28 PM | Comments (4)

Daniel Griswold's libertarian fantasy world

Dan Griswold is with the Cato Institute, and he appeared on KFI's John and Ken Show yesterday. You can hear his interview in their audio archives.

The interview concerned immigration and Bush's temporary worker plan. In a perfect world, people like Griswold would be considered extremist nuts. Unfortunately, in president Bush's world, people like him help set policy.

A heating contractor called in and said that in 1984 HVAC installers earned $21 an hour, but today they earn just $18 an hour. With inflation, that $21 would become $38. He said that illegal aliens were willing to work for $12 an hour because they lived three families to a house and drove a piece of crap car.

Griswold immediately threw down the race card, saying to John and Ken that they were "stoking some very ugly stereotypes" and that they were trying to "rile things up with inflammatory rhetoric".

Just one problem: the caller is correct, and Griswold is wrong. Whether it's just because he's willing to deny all of the evidence that his lunatic libertarian ideas are completely wrong, or because he's ignorant is not known. However, he, Bush, and all those on that side are on the other side from the vast majority of Americans.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 03:02 PM | Comments (3)

New Democratic Party slogans

"Give us a chance, OK?"

"Socialism doesn't necessarily imply Communism, you know. Please, read this pamphlet."

"Only a few of our members want to reclaim Mexico's Lost Territories for that country. Most of us don't have a position on that yet."

"Vote Democratic to Stop War and End Racism"

"The People's Struggle against the Hegemonic Oppressors will not be Thwarted! All Hail Chairman Howard Dean!"

"We don't have economic power because we don't own the means of production" (actual speech from Fabian Nunez, speaker of the CA Assembly. He said that at a protest featuring an American flag with just 13 Stars. The Mexican Army Band lead the parade. Nunez is - naturally - a Democrat.)

"California is going to be a Mexican state, we are going to control all the institutions. If people don't like it they should leave." (From Mario Obledo, co-founder of MALDEF and... a Democrat. Here's more about racist liberals.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

"Hayworth's plan won't fix problem"

From the editorial Hayworth's plan won't fix problem:

Real immigration reform or demagoguery? This year, Congress has opened a dialogue on an issue that the American people have long deemed pressing.

Finally, our legislators are facing up to the fact that current immigration law is not in tune with the economic or societal realities of our country. Change must happen – and soon.

If we are to fix our broken system, we must target the core. We must acknowledge the root causes driving immigration...

In most cases, the root cause is simple: corruption. If there were no money involved in massive illegal immigration, only a few politicians would support it. Those who would support it even if it personally cost them money would be far-left, racial demagogues with questionable loyalties.

By the way, this editorial is from Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona. Not only is he a Democrat, and not only does he support the Kennedy-McCain massive amnesty scheme, but he's also a proud former member of the racial separatist group MEChA. You know, the one that wants to "liberate" the U.S. southwest and turn it into a Chicano homeland.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:25 AM | Comments (2)

"Just How Temporary are 'Guest Workers?' Let's Ask Their Grandchildren"

From this:

...The idea was very appealing: [Germany] would import large numbers of Turks, Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Spaniards and Moroccans to cheaply do the jobs that "no German wanted to do." Such impoverished foreigners would be happy as pie with piddly wages (by German standards) and then they would all go home after a few years. This second part was very important to the Germans, who had never been a nation of immigration and were rightfully proud of their long history as a distinct and continuous people.

So how did it work? Great -- right up until the part where the guests were supposed to go home. They didn't. Employers became dependent on them and were reluctant to find and train replacements or adapt through innovation. And the workers found life as a janitor in Germany somewhat more attractive than life as a Goatherd in the backwoods of Anatolia.

So the employers and guests both fought for constant renewals and extensions and loopholes. The (very comfortable) guests then brought in their families at the first opportunity (or married other guest workers) and baby guests were born. Today, it has been forty to fifty years since the guest worker agreements were signed (depending on the guest-providing country in question), and the guests are still there.

There are two million Turkish guests, one million Yugoslav guests, half a million Italian guests, one third of a million Greek guests and a quarter million Polish guests, along with thousands of Moroccan, Tunisian, Middle Eastern, Russian, and assorted other guests. Guests are now 10% of Germany's population. And many of these guests were born in Germany, being the children and grandchildren of Germany's "temporary" workers from the fifties and sixties. Oh, and they've tired of the guest room, so they all expect to be made citizens now.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 03:03 AM | Comments (2)

WalMart has 103 products about Wicca?

What happened to the Five and Dime? Rootbeer floats and penny candy? Today's WalMart is not yesterday's Woolworth's! Now, you're just as likely to find books about... Wicca!

As this article points out, "Along with the Barbie dolls and Tonka Toys, 100 items for Wicca can be found at Wal-Mart."

Actually, when I went there and searched it said they had 103 items. Just 103? On the other hand, Amazon has over 3500 books about the subject:

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)

David Brooks welcomes new, corrupt, Democraticish conservative movement

America's boboiest pundit emerged from behind his paywall earlier today to offer "The Savior of the Right". It's about... George W. Bush. And, Brooks... is not kidding.

...Bush hasn't abandoned conservatism; he's modernized and saved it... Almost single-handedly, Bush reconnected with the positive and idealistic instincts of middle-class Americans. He did it by recasting conservatism more significantly than anyone had since Ronald Reagan. He rejected the prejudice that the private sector is good and the public sector is bad, and he tried to use government to encourage responsible citizenship and community service.

[...much discarded...]

This is not to say that Bush's approach to government is fully coherent. The tragedy of the Bush administration is that it never matched its unorthodox governing philosophy with an unorthodox political strategy... With his policies, Bush could have built a broad coalition across the right and center of American life. Unfortunately, his political strategy was a base strategy, which led him to reinforce the orthodox divisions between the parties.

Despite all the mistakes that have been made, it is nonetheless true that Bush has ennobled and saved American conservatism...

A clear case could be made that Bush is an un-American fraud, intent on using the "positive and idealistic instincts of middle-class Americans" as well as a cowboy hat prop and a varying drawl to sell them - and almost everyone else in the U.S. - down the river.

The latest example is his attempt to show that the public sector is OK: promising to spend billions of dollars as a way of buying off lost popularity due to Katrina. The initial chunk of that money has gone to connected firms, some of which appear to have employed illegal aliens through subcontractors. Needless to say, Bush has not even a minor scheme to get the former residents of New Orleans working on the rebuilding. He's going to let his perverted idea of a "market" do the magic there. Great if you believe in corporate socialism, not so great if you're pro-American.

Previously coverage of this BushBot: "David Brooks or Tokyo Rose?"

Posted to Politics at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

South Korea girl group 'Lady' has secret

The South Korea pop sensation 'Lady' is rocking Asia with their megahit debut album 'Attention' which is (literally) "flying off the shelves" from Bangkok to Pattaya to Hong Kong to Japan to Taiwan, the Independent reports. At first glance these pop sirens might appear to be your average girl group: they like "chocolate, shopping, and gossip".

But, let's look into Yoona, Sine (aka Shinae), Sahara and Binu (pictured above) in a bit more depth. Is there something they're trying to hide? Not at all! In fact they plan a so-called "nude album". Phwaor!

But, they do have a secret: they're a manufactured group. In fact, almost 400 other hopefuls turned out for the auditions to "make the band".

Oh, and they're also all former guys who've had their wangers chopped off.

UPDATE: Here's their video:

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)

"Liberals" cracking up over First Amendment?

Remember "Picture posting site busted for obscenity, but there's much more to it"? I hadn't heard of this issue before that happened, but this site says that "liberal" stalwarts RawStory, Americablog, and BuzzFlash lead the charge that lead to the bust and that they have curious ideas of the First Amendment. I haven't researched their postings on this nor do I intend to, but would anyone be surprised if that's true?

Posted to Privacy at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

"Give illegal immigrants a chance, [Sen. Chuck] Hagel says"

That's the title of this Omaha World-Herald story: "The plan Hagel is expected to introduce Tuesday also will include stronger controls at the border to stem the flow of undocumented workers into the United States." But, it's basically a massive amnesty scheme just like the other ones. Full text of the article here.

Your job if you'd be so kind: find out where Hagel gets his campaign contributions from, and the revenues of the top illegal immigration-employing industries in Nebraska.

It sounds like a job for ex-acquaintance "Ann D. Bome", who at one time was in Omaha researching a documentary... on Boy's Town.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:43 AM | Comments (5)

Should you trust anything Sen. John Cornyn says?

The plan to create a North American Community - an EU-style superstate consisting of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. - has been covered here in the past. And, no, it's not tinfoil talk, it's something that both the CFR and the Cato Institute support, and even our own "American" president supports it as well. Much more about that here.

In fact, here's a report from the U.S. State Department from May of this year:

"North American Task Force Seeks Improved Trade, Border Security"
usinfo.state.gov/wh/Archive/2005/May/18-799399.html

And, here's some legislation I ran across from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX):

S.2941

Title: A bill to authorize the President to negotiate the creation of a North American Investment Fund to promote economic and infrastructure integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and for other purposes.

Check some of the sites at that google search to see how this fits in to the superstate scheme.

Cornyn is, of course, also the co-author of a guest worker scheme. Since he also obviously supports continental integration, is there any reason not to completely suspect anything he says and does?

Posted to NAU at 06:19 AM | Comments (1)

The end of the line for illegal immigration supporter Douglas Duncan?

The WashTimes predicts that he's bitten off more than he can chew and, once he loses the Maryland governor's race his career will be finished: "Doug Duncan's end?"

Since 1974, no Maryland politician except Sen. Barbara Mikulski has ever lost an election for statewide office and managed to salvage a political career. Of course, Mr. Duncan could be the once-in-a-generation politician who overcomes the odds. If he does, it won't be because of his record in Montgomery County.

As we've pointed out on this page, most recently in connection with Gaithersburg's debate over "day labor" sites, Mr. Duncan thinks fostering an illegal-alien underclass serves Montgomery County's best interests and has been known to play partisan hardball in support of it. He has supported lower in-state college tuition for illegals. He supports allowing immigrants to use ID cards like Mexico's fraud-ridden matricula consular to obtain county services. He also has suggested that his critics equate illegals with terrorists.

If this turns out to be the last gasp of Mr. Duncan's political career, Maryland will be the better for it.

Based on my past coverage of him, I heartily agree. Previously: Montgomery County's Douglas Duncan paying price for supporting illegal immigration. Unfortunately: Martin O'Malley also supports illegal immigration.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:02 AM | Comments (0)

Ray Nagin for President!

Because America needs strong, capable leadership.

I am, of course, kidding, but feel free to buy a button or a T-shirt from that store.

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

We oppose the Miers nomination

The last thing we need is a Bush family crony on the United States Supreme Court.

(This is here for obscure blogospheric reasons.)

Posted to Bloggage at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)

Richmond Kentucky to issue ID cards to illegal aliens

From Richmond to offer ID cards to immigrants:

In Richmond, City Manager David Evans said the cards will be used for identification purposes only and should help immigrants more easily perform tasks most citizens take for granted, such as cashing a check or properly identifying themselves to authorities.

"I think it would be more of a help than anything else," he said. "I think it will be an asset for everybody."

Unfortunately, due to political corruption, there's probably little chance that he needs to be concerned with this. But, there is a small chance, and we can only hope.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 04:12 AM | Comments (0)

With 400,000 employees using the same SSN, can you trust anything Bush says?

The WaPo's "Little Support for Bush Immigration Plan" has comments about his scheme from Mark Krikorian of CIS as well as from Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, referred to by the WaPo as "liberal". Let's consider this:

But sooner or later, under the administration's proposal, there would be an immigrant exodus of historic proportions.

Maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling they're trying to portray Bush as Herod. But, they needn't worry, for the reasons I outlined in Chertoff promotes "Temporary Worker Program" at Senate meeting.

The WaPo also points out that in last week's testimony:

...administration officials acknowledged that about 400,000 employees are using a single Social Security number, all zeroes. But there was little discussion about penalizing employers who accept such numbers, Krikorian said... "There's no effort to inform employers regularly of fake Social Security numbers," he said. "That's something the president can do [Saturday]."

Needless to say, the president didn't do it today. From whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051022.html :

To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers, and criminals find it easier to sneak into America. My administration has a clear strategy for dealing with this problem: We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries.

Despite what you might think, the president of the United States is not lying. Rather, he's simply trying to mislead you. You need to parse his remarks in the correct, Clinton-approved fashion. Note that he only wants to "stop people from crossing into America illegally". If millions of cheap laborers can cross legally, that would be OK with him. And, once they're in the U.S., he's clearly not going to do anything about it.

While many examples could be provided, consider that Bush gave the green light to employers to hire illegal aliens after the hurricane, and, as can be seen, employers did just that.

And, consider this: "GAO: ICE all but ignores workplace enforcement". That last report is also discussed in the recent "Report: Immigration workplace fines and arrests plummet":

Between fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2003, the report shows that the number of work-site arrests in the United States by government immigration agents fell by 83 percent, dropping from 2,849 arrests in 1999, to 485 in 2003, the last year for which Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided data to the accountability office.

Another indicator of the downward trend revealed in the report was the number of employers who were fined for hiring undocumented immigrants.

In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued 427 "Notices of Intent to Fine" to companies across the nation.

But in fiscal year 2004, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was formed in 2003 to do the job of the INS, issued just three such notices in the entire country, according to the report.

It's difficult for people to realize that someone they like is just bs'ing them. But, I'm sure many of that small number of people who still support Bush will come to terms with it in time.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:02 PM | Comments (2)

"Illegals at military bases raise concerns"

From the AP:

Scores of illegal aliens working as cooks, laborers, janitors, even foreign-language instructors have been seized at military bases around the country in the past year, raising concerns in some quarters about security and troop safety.

I don't know exactly how to parse the "some quarters" bit. Shouldn't everyone be concerned about this?

The aliens did not work directly for the military but for private contractors, as part of a large-scale effort by the Pentagon to outsource many routine rear-echelon jobs and free up the troops to concentrate on waging war.

Some worry that this fast-growing practice could make U.S. military installations more vulnerable to security breaches...

I don't know if this started under Clinton, but I'd imagine it's accelerated under Bush. "Some quarters" still think of the latter as our Homeland Security President.

The rest of the article lists some of the recent arrests, and I think all of them have been previously discussed in this category.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 07:57 AM | Comments (1)

Somos Useful Idiots: CodePink to defend constitution by visiting Cuba

CodePink is organizing a sex tour peace and freedom tour of Cuba, and you're invited:

This New Year's CODEPINK will be organizing a large group of fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans to break George Bush's ban on travel to Cuba. Join co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Academy Award winning producer Paul Haggis, as we visit with farmers at their co-ops, doctors at their family clinics, dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark. Don't miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches—all while defending our constitutional rights!!!

Yes, but what about the sex tour sugar beet collective farm tours? What about the visit to brothels the People's Museo of the Collective Struggle Against Oppression in Angola People's 1976 Brigade Counter-Reactionary Action Museum? Will those be included?

...The Bush administration says we can only travel to Cuba if we have immediate family there. Well, we do. Cubans ARE family - Somos Familia. And while we're there, we'll be holding a mutual adoption ceremony in order to demonstrate that family transcends political boundaries. In the ceremony, each participant will be paired with a Cuban brother or sister. After all, we are all part of one human family and there should be no artificial barriers dividing us...

Note also that while you probably thought the ban on travel to Cuba pre-dated Our Lider by a few years, you were obviously wrong.

To sign up, you need to agree to this:

Signing the waiver will confirm your understanding that CODEPINK neither seeks nor accepts a license from the U.S. Government to travel to Cuba. This trip will explicitly challenge the United States restrictions on travel to Cuba, including press releases and conferences and acknowledging to government officials that we are traveling to and from Cuba

In other words, you're useful idiot pawns in yet another Medea Benjamin attempt to grab attention. I'll let someone else weigh in on the legal issues, but there isn't much more in their "waiver". They don't explicitly state all the bad things that could happen, perhaps leading someone who has problems to try to sue them or something...

Also, I wonder whether CP will vet their participants to make sure they aren't on the other side. Of course, there's probably only an extremely small chance that some spook or other would join up to spy on the "liberals" or the Cubans. Don't even think about that possibility! No one would ever do that.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

Ruben Navarrette Jr. or Vicente Fox?

The column "A city about to change colors" says it was written by San Diego Union-Tribute editorialist Ruben Navarrette Jr., but it reads like it was written by Vicente Fox.

I strongly urge you to read the column and use the email addresses below to let those papers that printed this know what you think. While most might appreciate the attention, some might also reconsider whether they want to continue being associated with his views.

After Katrina, Americans gave millions of dollars to help the victims, and our federal government will give untold billions more. This should be an opportunity for Americans of all races and backgrounds to come together and help each other. Unfortunately, some others tend to put their race before their country and their fellow citizens.

If you thought the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina was ugly, then you should take a look at what's happening now. It's not pretty.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are up in arms because what has historically been a mostly black city may be on its way to becoming a largely brown city. Latino immigrants are coming to New Orleans from as far away as California to repair homes, clear debris, rebuild roads and do other jobs...

The vast majority of them are citizens of Mexico and other countries. Some are new crossers, others are illegal aliens who've been here for a while. The vast majority are not Americans.

Folks such as such as Jackson, who has also complained that too many of the government contracts to rebuild the city are going to firms outside Louisiana. Jackson has gone so far as to propose chartering buses to bring black evacuees back to New Orleans so they could claim jobs that Jackson insists are rightfully theirs.

First of all, not all the people on his buses were black, and I don't think even Jackson would have restricted it just to blacks. And, don't those former residents have a greater right to those jobs than illegal aliens? Would someone who's willing to put their country and their fellow citizens ahead of their race think the same thing as Navarette does? How could any American support such a position?

City officials say that one thing that keeps former residents from wanting to give New Orleans another chance is the lack of subsidized housing.

Guess what? Latino immigrants have to contend with the same shortage. The difference is that the immigrants are not sitting around and waiting for government to come to the rescue. They're probably living two or three families to a house, and saving money to buy a home of their own.

That's how it used to be in this country before the advent of the welfare state. And, if the immigrant values win out in this struggle — over those of the New Orleans officials — it could be that way again.

Those "immigrant values" include unsafe working and living conditions, hardly American values.

What's the American thing to do in this case? Let's do whatever we need to do to get those former residents - or at least other Americans - to do the jobs. Considering the subtext of those preceding paragraphs, if this had been written by a white person it would never have seen the light of day. Even if some of our fellow Americans are as shiftless as Navarrette wants us to believe, then we need to deal with that directly, and not just send them to other states where they'll continue to be a part of the welfare state.

Note that similar thoughts have been expressed by Raul A. Reyes of USA Today, Linda Chavez, and the Los Angeles Times' Gregory Rodriquez.

As stated above, I suggest writing to each of the sources that printed this and let them know what you think:

Here come the Latinos - Jesse and Nagin are up in arms (schmooze@jewishworldreview.com)

The Struggle for Competing Values in New Orleans ( feedback@realclearpolitics.com)

New Orleans leaders fret over growing Latino population (jpbowman@angnewspapers.com,ttuttle@angnewspapers.com)

Will it be Nuevo Orleans? (twinckler@sanmateocountytimes.com,ttuttle@angnewspapers.com)

New Orleans leaders bemoan Latino influx (feedback@sgvn.com)

Efforts to repair, rebuild New Orleans engulfed in racial politics (shidlay@app.com)

Welcome to Nuevo Orleans (publiceditor@sacbee.com)

Why not Nuevo Orleans? (don_holland@link.freedom.com,smw@link.freedom.com)

Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:34 PM | Comments (5)

The new Democratic slogan

This is one of the leading contenders: America Can Do Better.

Posted to Politics at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)

A new way for "liberals" to be traitors

They can support Quebec's plan to create their own armed forces.

[Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said:] "There'll be an army, of course... We have to have those organizations, I would say... If you develop a foreign policy the way we see it, then we'll have an army that will intervene mainly to secure democracy in some countries, participating in international forces, going when there's a natural catastrophe, either inside Quebec or outside Quebec... And sometimes you have to go to war."

Posted to Miscellania at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

Arizona Poll: employers should verify immigration status

From this:

Echoing the results of an Arizona Republic Poll published today, the poll by Phoenix-based ThinkAZ said that 64 percent of these voters believe that putting the onus on employers would be "effective." Existing U.S. law requires employers to verify employees' legal status and allows authorities to fine organizations that do not comply. However, the law is not rigorously enforced.

The approach that respondents to the ThinkAZ poll support the least is granting "immediate U.S. citizenship or amnesty" to undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least three years. Only about 30 percent favor it...

A 44 percent plurality of respondents said eliminating automatic U.S. citizenship for babies born to undocumented immigrants in the United States would be "effective" in controlling illegal immigration. A proposal to limit access to a public school education to U.S. citizens was seen as "effective" by a leading 42 percent...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)

Kilgore, Kaine, the VA governor's race, and the WaPo's bias

From this:

There are two things every American should know about Virginia's governor's race: 1) It's the first sizable political contest to turn, largely, on the issue of illegal immigration. 2) As such, it spotlights the pathetic state of political discourse on the subject.

Just to be clear, there's nothing pathetic about the position of Republican nominee Jerry W. Kilgore. He's the guy I like. I like him simply because he says he wants to enforce the law -- for example, the law prohibiting illegal aliens and other non-citizens from voting. He would even like to see the law tightened to become more easily enforceable. I also like him because he says he doesn't want to break the law -- such as laws prohibiting welfare and other benefits from being distributed to illegal aliens.

But this is precisely where the debate becomes pathetic: In the United States, in the year 2005, just trying to help carry out immigration laws already on the books, and just trying not to break them, marks one as a veritable subversive with a program, as The Washington Post hysterically put it, "tinged with nativism and opportunism."

...Timothy M. Kaine, Kilgore's Democratic opponent, calls this approach "mean-spirited"; Kaine's solution, meanwhile, is both to defer to local officials and rely on federal enforcement -- which is no solution at all. An independent candidate, H. Russell Potts Jr., calls Kilgore's law-and-order position "the worst form of demagoguery." A Kaine spokesman called it "grandstanding." Kilgore had succumbed to "the temptation to fan the flames with a naked appeal for votes," according to The Washington Post, itself succumbing to the temptation to mix metaphors. The newspaper also dubbed the Kilgore plan to follow the law "populist nonsense" and "a wedge issue..."

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:35 PM | Comments (2)

Bush promotes immigration "reform", "temporary" worker scheme

Here are his remarks from Monday. If you removed all the lies, hot air, and just plain ol' BS from these three paragraphs you'd be left with little more than three "the"'s and two "it"'s:

As we improve and expand our efforts to secure our borders, we must also recognize that enforcement work -- that enforcement cannot work unless it is part of a larger comprehensive immigration reform program. If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis. The best way to do that is through a temporary worker program that gives those workers we need a legal, honest way to come into our country and to return home. I'm going to work with members of Congress to create a program that can provide for our economy's labor needs, without harming American workers, without providing amnesty, and that will improve our ability to control our borders.

You see, we got people sneaking into our country to work. They want to provide for their families. Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River. People are coming to put food on the table. But because there is no legal way for them to do so, through a temporary worker program, they're putting pressure on our border. It makes sense to have a rational plan that says, you can come and work on a temporary basis if an employer can't find an American to do the job. It makes sense for the employer, it makes sense for the worker, and it makes sense for those good people trying to enforce our border. The fewer people trying to sneak in to work means it's more likely we're going to catch drug smugglers and terrorists and gun runners.

A critical part of any temporary worker program is work site enforcement. To deal with employers who violate our immigration law, this bill strengthens our enforcement capabilities by adding new agents and doubling their resources. We've got to crack down on employers who flout our laws. And we will give honest employers the tools they need to spot fake documents and ensure that their workers are respecting our laws. America is a country of laws, and we're going to uphold our laws for the good of the citizens of this country.

Compare the middle paragraph to the highly similar spiel he played to O'Reilly last year.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 08:32 AM | Comments (5)

Mexico approves of Bush Temporary Worker Scheme

Our friends to the south, specifically the Foreign Relations Secretariat, have issued the following statement on the scheme laid out yesterday by DHS head Chertoff:

"The Mexican government considers it significant that the Bush administration has a solid and unified position on immigration reform that allows safe, legal and orderly migration, and takes into account those migrants who are already residing in the United States... Mexico understands the link between regional security and the immigration issue but stresses that both issues should be viewed as shared responsibilities. [MX will maintain contact with Bush et al] to make suggestions to help the immigration situation and standards of living of our countrymen."

Previously: Chertoff promotes "Temporary Worker Program" at Senate meeting

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:44 AM | Comments (0)

Senator Barbara Boxer book: "A Time to Run"

Previously came the news that California's dumber Senator, and in fact one of the dumbest Senators ever, is trying her hand at fiction: "She's a boxer, a fighter, and a bodice-ripping good read". This, of course, follows her two successful non-fiction titles: Governance for Dummies and If I Can Be A Senator So Can Anyone.

I now demand that you purchase a copy of A Time to Run: A Novel by this plucky Democrat. If she becomes a best-selling author she might decide to pursue that full time, thus saving California and the nation from having to deal with her decisions.

"Suffice it to say, this effort reads more like a cross between a bad romance novel and a soap opera script. The Congressional Record might be more entertaining. And it's free," noted the Sacramento Bee, which obtained an uncorrected proof of the novel last month but was prohibited from quoting directly from it. According to Mrs. Boxer's 2004 financial records, she received an advance of $15,938 for the novel, co-written with Mary-Rose Hayes, a sixtysomething British author known for such feminine fare as "Amethyst" and "The Winter Women."

Well, it will make a great collector's item and conversation starter then.

Posted to Miscellania at 03:05 AM | Comments (1)

Colorado poll: yes to immigration, no to illegal immigration

Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 did a poll of 500 "likely Colorado voters":

"Overall, immigration is a good thing.":
61 percent said they "strongly" or "somewhat" agree

"Illegal immigrants are a burden on the United States, because of their impact on things like schools, jobs, and health care":
50% "strongly agree"
23% "somewhat agree" (73%)
"somewhat" or "strongly" disagree 26%.

"highest priority for the federal government?":
"the budget deficit" 20%
"the cost and supply of energy" 18%
the "war in Iraq" 16%
"terrorism" 14%
immigration 10%
job creation 10%

Tancredo, a statewide and national lightning rod on the issue, earned a 31 percent favorable rating from the respondents. Nearly as many, 29 percent, said they have an unfavorable impression of him. One in five said they'd never heard of him and 18 percent had no opinion.

Needless to say, M.E. Sprengelmeyer of the RM News has a little difficult understanding the "complex" results. He starts discussing their "harsh view toward illegal immigrants", then quotes an open borders advocate, then discusses "resentment to illegal immigration" that:

cuts across ethnic and other lines, although more Republican males (18 percent) viewed the issue as the country's highest priority. Only 11 percent of Republican women ranked it the top priority. Among whites in the survey, 78 percent agreed that illegal immigrants were a "burden," and so did 47 percent of Hispanics.

Here's a hint: don't put "burden" in quotes if it's in your survey question. If you feel a need to put words like that in quotes, don't put them in your own survey.

Then, the crack reporter follows with this:

Val Forsmark, a retired journalist who took the survey, said she's not surprised so many people blame illegal immigrants.

I'm sure we should let Val set our immigration policy.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:31 AM | Comments (4)

Bloggers blogging from the Capitol!

Wow! This is big news! Several bloggers - led by Matt Margolis of Blogs for Bush - will be blogging live from "Bloggers' Row" at the Capitol on 10/20!

According to the invitation he received from the House Republican Conference:

For the first time ever, Bloggers are invited to meet directly with House Members and blog from the Capitol. Members will be stopping in throughout the day to meet with bloggers and discuss the House Republican record of successful economic policies, their commitment to fiscal responsibility, and the details of the historic proposed budget amendment that is expected to reach the floor later this week.

Why, Matt's even got a form you can fill out with your questions.

Just off the top of my head, here's a few:

To what do you owe your successful stewardship of this great country?

What was the most difficult plan of Our Leader to implement, and how did you feel when you had successfully implemented it?

How does it feel to have finally got the country on the right track with your successful economic policies?

Will your commitment to fiscal responsibility continue in the coming years of your esteemed reign?

And, note that this effort is Insty-approved!

N.Z. BEAR IS SETTING UP A SPECIAL PAGE for people participating in the Congressional blogging event tomorrow. If you'll be participating, please let him know.

Also, Matt Margolis is taking questions to ask the House members. Submit yours!

I say, ask 'em about the pork, and the Coburn amendment. (Yes, I know it's in the Senate, but someone could always introduce a House version.)

And, now for the punchline: only some of these people are in on the game!

And, this is similar to what happened the last time bloggers were invited to the Big Top. At that time, BlogsForBush solicited questions for the RNC bloggers, and you can read my attempt to hijack their comments thread at that link. Note this from that post:

Please keep your questions positive and related to the campaign, George W. Bush, and the election.

And, you can read my unsucessful attempts to get a few questions proposed and asked here and here (redstate.org/story/2004/8/23/184419/535). Needless to say, it didn't work out too well.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

Air America's Communist connection

Did you know that ads from a Communist-linked group appeared on Air America Radio?

Da, comrade, it's true! Jamie, from Gosudarstvennoye Buro Informatsii, aka AAR's media relations dep't, has not returned my call requesting a statement. We will keep all comrades up to vremya on breaking scandal. Rabotayu i slezhu....

Posted to Miscellania at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

Judy Miller or Arianna Huffington: who'd be the better hiker?

I haven't been following PlameGate, but I do know that there are two sexy ladies in this picture:

The circumstances of this photo are described here, but since I'm an avid hiker I obviously have other questions.

For instance, what was the distance and gain of their hike? I guess Aspen is around 8000' in elevation. That's basically nothing altitude-wise, but some people can get sick that low or a little higher. Did Arianna and Judy hit 10k? Based on their outfits, I doubt if they tried for a 14er. Did they get into any rock work? Some aid climbing? How about some 4th class?

And, if you were a hiking guide, employed to guide the world's elite up hill and down dale, what would you do in this case? Would you try to give Arianna some private hiking lessons, or would you reserve your attention for Judy?

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

Chertoff promotes "Temporary Worker Program" at Senate meeting

Don't believe everything you read about DHS head Michael Chertoff's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

First, from Drudge, come these headlines in red:

HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF: EXPEL ALL ILLEGALS... 'Our goal is to return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions'...

Those headlines and the first two paragraphs of the AFP article Drudge references are wrong. Read Chertoff's prepared remarks here: dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=45&content=4890

He wasn't referring to deporting all illegal aliens. He was in fact only referring to those OTMs ("Other than Mexicans") caught at the border. Most of them are given a notice to appear and released into the U.S. and never heard from again. He pledged to end that "catch and release" by adding new detention space. There's background on this issue here, here, and by searching for OTMs in the search box.

And:

The Cabinet officials emphasized that the president strongly opposed an amnesty for illegal aliens, and Chertoff agreed with Kennedy that trying to deport all illegal immigrants would not be possible. "It would take billions and billions and billions of dollars to do it," Chertoff said.

Shades of Asa Hutchinson. And, from his prepared remarks:

Ending illegal immigration means both tough enforcement and action to reduce the very demand that draws illegal migrants into the country. Therefore, our strategy of reforming our immigration system is a three-pillar, comprehensive approach that focuses on controlling the border, building a robust interior enforcement program, and establishing a Temporary Worker Program.

That's the new word for their "guest" worker program. A question: what happens when those "temporary" workers have U.S. citizen children? Does anyone in their right mind think that we would be able to deport mixed families if they don't want to return? Can't you just imagine Sen. Teddy Kennedy joining with Rep. Nancy Pelosi to propose an "adjustment" of their status allowing these millions of formerly "temporary" workers to stay here permanently? Isn't anyone who would call them "Temporary" workers just lying to you?

And, note that this appears to be part of a larger Bush administration offensive. Also today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held a Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Fixing a Broken System confab featuring First Data (owners of Western Union), Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and other immigration "reformers". For more on the ties between "reform" and big business, see "Big Business Balks at Bush Propaganda Plan".

And, this is days after Tamar Jacoby entertained the crowds at the LAPL.

And, a new push poll on immigration "reform" was released on Monday.

It's unfortunate that almost every person commenting on this has simply taken the AFP's report above at face value without understanding what Chertoff really said and what this all means.

If you want to do something about this, please help set the record straight.

And, contact your representatives and tell them to just enforce the laws.

UPDATE: From this:

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao provided a general outline of the plan Bush introduced last year, emphasizing that undocumented workers accepted into the program would receive no advantages over immigrants in the country legally and that they would be required to return home after their work period ends. "Those who come forward will not be offered an automatic pass to citizenship and should be expected to pay a substantial fine or penalty to participate in the temporary program," she said. Under the president's plan, she said, guest workers would be able to extend a three-year work visa for another three years, but would then have to leave the country for a year to apply for a new work permit. She said they would be issued biometric, tamper-resistant cards that would allow them to cross U.S. borders during their stay.

And, from the same article, John McCain borrows my talking point:

McCain said any plan centered on sending illegal immigrants home ignores that businesses rely on immigrant labor and that many immigrants have children born in the United States, who are citizens. "Somebody is going to have to explain how that is workable," he said of the idea of deporting illegal workers.

It isn't. And, McCain's scheme is even worse than the Bush scheme.

Could someone please keep track of editorials supporting these various amnesty schemes? Here's the Miami Herald: "EDITORIAL: Border enforcement doesn't get job done".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:58 AM | Comments (5)

Las Vegas gambling on massive illegal immigration

See "Violent gang with Central American roots expands deep into U.S." for the scoop. See "Can you trust the Las Vegas Sun?" for more on that paper.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Los Angeles Times endorses Proposition 75

In an official, editorial page endorsement, the LAT has thrown whatever weight it has left behind the same proposition that Arnold Schwarzenegger supports: "Their views, their dues":

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that union members cannot be forced to finance political activity, and Proposition 75 merely requires that public employee unions get written consent from their members before their dues and fees are used for political purposes. Currently, union members must request specifically that their dues not be spent on politics, and there is some question about how realistic a choice this is in some unions. Shifting the burden to the union to gain the consent of a member — as Washington, Utah and other states now require — does not seem onerous, and may even encourage greater accountability on the part of union leadership.

UPDATE: Here's a Special Election blog. See also the following:

True face of Democratic Party: union thugs attack woman at anti-Arnold rally

One of the California Teachers Association commercials appears to be, er, lying.

The California Teachers Association is spending itself into financial difficulties with these sleazy ads.

Union thugs shout down teachers suing over union electioneering

One of the fire fighters commercials features Mark Skeen. Did you know he's not just a firefighter, but the executive vice president of the San Jose Fire Fighters Union?

And, this is in some ways a battle between Arnold and the far-lefties in the California legislature. They are far-left indeed.

Here's more on CA Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg. The Policy Committee for the World Communist Youth Festival? She was on it.

From 2003: "Recall Supporters Violently Attacked"

And, here's a quote from former CA State Senator John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara: "Since [the U.S.] stole [the U.S. Southwest] from [Mexico], why do you say it's unfair to steal it back from us?"

CA State Sen. Gil Cedillo said something similar ("they were here first") in part of his continual quest to get legal California driver's licenses into the hands of illegal aliens from Mexico.

And, see "California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]": "We want the Mexican people to know that the measure is on [Arnold Schwarzenegger's] desk... However it is now September and he has not responded whatsoever, although we will insist on approval of the bill, basically so that illegal migrants can have access to education and health services in the U.S..."

Bottom line: Arnold is up against some really bad people who don't have the state's best interests at heart. Don't believe their lies.

UPDATE 2: See also the following:
True face of Democratic Party: union thugs attack woman at anti-Arnold rally

Yes on Proposition 77

Yes on Proposition 76

Arnold Schwarzenegger TV questioners included three Democratic activists (the questioners were billed to the viewers as "balanced" and "representative", and those activists weren't identified as such. Needless to say, the Los Angeles Times buried this news.)

Posted to California at 08:31 AM | Comments (1)

Will Texas Lottery Commission corruption be ignored?

From this:

WND has learned from reliable sources within the Texas lottery scandals that pressure from prominent Texas Democrats, including former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, is being placed on Democratic senators considering the high-court nomination of Harriet Miers – whom Gov. George W. Bush appointed as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission – to keep away from investigating the lottery scandals.

WND was told, "The fix is on." Why? The corruption surrounding Texas lottery operator GTECH buying political influence in Texas was bi-partisan, reaching across from the administration of Democratic Gov. Ann Richards into the administration of Republican Gov. Bush. Texans who were named in the scandals of the 1990s are concerned that if the Senate Judiciary Committee does its job and subpoenas prominent players such as former lottery executive director Larry Littwin, many will go to jail.

Posted to Politics at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

"Deportation often an empty threat, as illegal immigration rises"

From this:

Illegal immigration is increasing rapidly from countries other than Mexico, federal officials are telling Congress. And the ease with which these foreign nationals can stay in the United States is fueling terrorism concerns.

Testimony at a recent congressional hearing and a report to House members said the lack of detention space to hold this growing category of illegal immigrants means 70 percent of them remain free until deportation. Most disappear into the United States.

Last week, Congress passed a homeland security bill that included funding for 2,300 more detention beds. This brings the total to 20,300, which is 3,750 fewer than the Sept. 11 commission wanted.

Long an issue between the United States and Mexico, the international scope of illegal immigration has grown substantially since 1997. But the diversity of people coming through the southern border has ignited a debate over their motives for coming.

"Terrorists can use South America as a launching pad to slip into Mexico and from there into the United States," says Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. Others say such talk is overblown.

Would those "others" be willing to put their money where their mouths are? If they turn out to be wrong, would they, for instance, be willing to take full responsibility for being wrong? Hey, where'd those "others" go?

Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:29 AM | Comments (1)

Immigration "news" from the Wall Street Journal

As discussed here several times, the editorial side of the WSJ favors open borders, smearing opponents and outright lying as necessary. The news side of the WSJ seems to have a few problems as well. Consider "California Race Highlights Split On Immigration" from Miriam Jordan. It reports on Jim Gilchrist getting 14% of the vote in California's 48th District, the same topic as that discussed in the editorial covered in How unserious are the free enterprise types? The WSJ's "news" piece even uses some of the same language as that piece. Why, it's almost like they're reading from the same talking points or something.

A full discussion of the WSJ's "news" article will have to wait, but let's consider this:

Economic conservatives tend to favor [Bush's anti-American plans.] Meanwhile, cultural conservatives vehemently oppose the Bush proposal...

Being so simplistic makes things so much easier, doesn't it? I'm positive that many more people than just "cultural conservatives" are opposed to guest worker schemes, just as long as those schemes are correctly described to them. Which brings us to the next bit of "news" from the WSJ:

New public-opinion data, generated by the Republican polling firm Tarrance Group, indicate that Republican voters nationwide don't necessarily agree with a deportation- and enforcement-only immigration policy. Instead they favor solutions that will deal with both future immigrants and the millions of undocumented workers already here. The national poll of 800 likely Republican voters, released yesterday, found that only 16% want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants entirely. Nearly 80% would support an enforcement package that increases penalties for employers, registers workers and -- provided those workers pay taxes, learn English and stay on the right side of the law -- offers a path to eventual citizenship.

What wonderful "news"! But, doesn't that paragraph almost sound a bit like a Soviet infomercial? So, let's look a little deeper:

The poll, of 800 American "likely voters," was conducted March 20-22. It was commissioned by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Immigration Forum.

The full questions and results are in PDFs at that link; the survey is a bit like asking people whether they want chocolate or vanilla ice cream without telling them both have lead in it. They haven't given those polled the full facts and they haven't offered them other choices. For instance, they get a good response when they ask whether fines for illegal aliens and employers should be increased; they don't ask about fines for politicians who refuse to enforce those laws. They even get people to agree that America's immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed; what they don't reveal is that that's a favorite talking point of the open borders lobby.

A very similar poll was conducted by and for the same organization six months ago; see "FAIR Responds to Sham Immigration Poll". The Tarrance Group is risking their credibility by conducting polls of this sort for organizations like the AILA and the NIF. And, after reading this Pravda-level "news report" from the Wall Street Journal, I'll let the reader decide whether they have any credibility remaining.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:50 AM | Comments (1)

Houston Chronicle on OTMs

Here's yet another long article on "Other Than Mexicans", including this:

More than 47,600 illegal border crossers from "countries other than Mexico," so called OTMs, have been caught in South Texas this year. But 42,000, or more than 88 percent, have been promptly released and most have simply melted into society, failing to show up for required immigration court hearings, according to the Texas governor's office.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 03:25 AM | Comments (1)

If the White House proposes immigration "reform", how low will their popularity go?

Corruption. Cronyism. Unbelievable incompetence. Un-American activities. Indictments. It just goes on and on, doesn't it?

And, it gets even worse. According to "White House to outline proposal", the Bush administration intends to propose immigration "reform" tomorrow.

Note that a previous post contradicted the DFW article: Has the Bush immigration "reform" scheme been scrapped? One of them must be true, and we'll find out on the morn.

In a way it would be good if they do propose this. I believe it would encourage a good discussion of this topic, and as long as the pro-American forces can get it together and counteract the propaganda from the other side, we might be able to score even more gains. Unfortunately, a lot of people talk a good game, but they have problems doing things as simple as sending emails to their reps and newspapers. But, perhaps they could be encouraged to let their thoughts be known.

This might even encourage the grassroots of the GOP to replace their corrupt leadership in an attempt to distance themselves from Bush's anti-American policies.

And, of course, it will drive Bush's popularity even lower than it is now, perhaps even below 30%. At what point is the Bush administration forced to admit that they do not have the consent of the governed?

Posted to Politics at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

Examples of PBS's "liberal" propaganda

This article discusses EekoWorld from the PBS Kids website. Unfortunately, it tries to get humorous and include a little whimsy, making it difficult to tell the exact degree of propaganda involved. If anyone wants to do some more research and list examples that would be appreciated.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

The French are getting fat

France-bashing seems to be waning, so I thought I'd pick up some slack by pointing this out:

Obesity levels among French children are now about the same level as in the United States 20 years ago, [a study conducted by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research] found.

Posted to Miscellania at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

How unserious are the free enterprise types?

Do the "free" trade, "free" enterprise types - those libertarians and conservaties who advocate generally open borders - have any kind of an argument? Have they thought things through? Are they, in a word, serious?

If the guest editorial "Nativism and the immigration issue" is any guide, the answer to all questions is "No". It's from Phil Kerpen, who's only identified as a "policy analyst". A couple links later, we find out he's with the Free Enterprise Fund. Their chairman is Mallory Factor, and those on their Policy Council are Jack Kemp, Lawrence Kudlow, and Arthur Laffer. From the screed:

The results of the recent special election in California's 48th Congressional District are a sober wakeup call to economic conservatives who believe in the free movement of goods, capital and labor.

I don't need to tell my readers that there's a difference between goods and people. The former just sit there on shelves in warehouses. On the other hand, people do things, they need things, they start revolutions, they commit crimes, they form communities, and on and on. If we import bad products we can just dispose of them. If we import bad people, things get much, much more complex.

And, of course, it's good to note that the "free" market types are scared of the voters finally waking up.

Self-appointed, vigilante immigration restrictionist Jim Gilchrist received a sizable 14.4 percent of the vote for Congress on a single-issue, immigrant bashing platform. Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who endorsed Gilchrist, is trying, with some success, to raise immigrant-bashing to a top-tier issue in the 2008 elections.

I count six smears in just two sentences. Bravo! Of course, the SDUT might want to consider whether what little reputation it has is enhanced by printing food-throwing articles.

Anti-immigration sentiment is one symptom of a larger neo-Mercantilist disease that is also threatening the globalization of trade and capital flows. Unless true free-market conservatives tame these emotional arguments with the force of logic, much of the economic progress of the past century could be reversed.

You can see the "force" of logic in that and the preceding paragraph, although this latest para has just two smears so he's improving! The "force of logic" is on the side of Gilchrist and Tancredo; their arguments make sense and are supported by the vast majority of Americans. The only way the "free" market forces can win is through smears, lies, and propaganda.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:32 PM | Comments (4)

Boston Globe's Yvonne Abraham makes fun of Minuteman Project

That reporter offers a hit piece entitled "Volunteers get cold reception in Vermont". The overall attempt of the article seems to be to mock the MMP and make them look like fools. However, as we'll see later, the joke appears to be on the Globe. From the article:

It's hard to save the United States from illegal immigrants when you can't find the border... [...they got "forced out of" one town...] So the volunteers set off to watch a stretch of border on a bike path that runs along Lake Memphremagog... Only they got lost...

Ha ha! Those dumb fools! Look at them, the dumb fools!

But, back to the circumstances for them leaving the first town they went to:

But these Minutemen were forced out of town by a larger crowd of protesters, who denounced their opposition to illegal immigration as a front for racism.

Why, you might ask, is the Boston Globe supporting a mob forcing people out of a town?

And:

"They are outsiders, and we don't want them here," said David Van Deusen of Moretown, Vt., who helped to organize the protest. "We don't want their racist policies in Vermont."

Oddly enough, the Globe doesn't tell us more about van Deusen. Did their reporter or an editor bother to find out more about him? Did the Globe bother to find out that he's a frequent contributor to the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (nefac.net)?

Really now. Why is a supposedly reputable newspaper supporting the side of anarchists-communists? Is there something they need to tell their readers? If they're going to repeat the racism charge, shouldn't they also disclose that the person making the charge appears to be an anarchist-communist? Is van Deusen basically just a sock puppet for the Boston Globe?

Let's write to ombud *at* globe.com and ask them to clarify their position. Is the Boston Globe an anarchist newspaper, or a commie rag? Or, a little bit of both?

Or, is the Boston Globe just a supporter of those corrupt politicians and businesses that profit off illegal immigration?

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:13 AM | Comments (2)

Is the Associated Press a trustworthy source?

Look at the following screengrab of an AP report reprinted at WRAL and let me know:

At post time, the headline is "White Supremacists Riot In Toledo, Ohio", and the first paragraph is:

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Protesters at a white supremacists' march threw rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores and cursed the mayor for allowing the event.

If you read the link, you'll see that the rest of the story directly contradicts the headline: it was the presumably all or mostly all black residents who rioted, not the Nazis. There were reportedly 600 or more people in the crowd, including an unstated number of rioters. However, there were at "least two dozen" Nazis, and the article doesn't report them rioting.

And, this is clearly an AP-supplied headline: the exact same headline and first paragraph appears here and here. ABC even publishes what appears to be an earlier-posted version of the same article here (note the lower ID number); the only difference is that the headline of that is "Emergency Declared After Anti-Nazi Riots".

And, note that the questionably-headlined ABC report even has a subtitle of "Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, Declares Emergency, Sets Curfew After Hundreds of White Supremacists Riot".

I sent an email to feedback *at* ap.org asking them how they could make this mistake and I'll update this report in the unlikely event I get a response.

While no one wants to defend Nazis, everyone needs to defend their right to peaceably assemble. If someone isn't going to do that, perhaps they should consider their citizenship options.

I believe the problem here is that the AP wants First Amendment protections for themselves, but isn't willing to extend that right to others with whom they disagree. Perhaps the AP as well as the residents of Toledo should attend the same Remedial Constitution class.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 06:18 AM | Comments (3)

Does USA Today support illegal aliens taking rebuilding jobs?

USA Today offers a very strange column from Raul A. Reyes entitled Katrina's next expose: Immigration woes. Reyes is "an attorney in New York and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors", and his article reads like a hasty, amalgamated summary of recent pro-illegal immigration essays from other professional Hispanics. It's almost like they're all reading from the same script. (And, needless to say, the titular expose is not that illegal aliens are taking jobs that should go to those Americans who were affected by the storm.)

Reyes' editorial starts with this:

I predictably didn't see many Latinos amid the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. After all, New Orleans has never had a large Hispanic population. Not only might this soon change, Katrina's aftermath might also become an immigration issue.

How very similar to something Linda Chavez recently said in her racial-cheerleading column.

Then, Reyes provides some backstory on Bush's backstabbing of American workers:

To stimulate relief efforts, President Bush suspended portions of the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that construction workers on federal projects be paid the prevailing local wage. Then the Department of Homeland Security said it would not penalize employers who hired illegal workers. While the idea behind these actions is to lower costs, cut red tape and accelerate rebuilding, the reality is that contractors will have free rein to hire undocumented workers.

Upon reading the last sentence, I (foolishly) briefly thought he might end up supporting rebuilding jobs going to our own citizens. As we shall see, I was quite gullible to consider that even for a millisecond. And, compare his backstory with that in the S.F. Chronicle's "As locals struggle, migrants find work in New Orleans":

Recognizing the demand for migrant labor, and to help speed reconstruction in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security temporarily suspended rules mandating employers to prove that workers they hire are citizens or have a legal right to work in the United States. In addition, President Bush suspended application in the Katrina-affected region of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, under which employers must pay prevailing wage rates on federally financed construction projects -- in order, Bush said, to "permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."

Returning to USA Today:

The construction industry already relies on Latino immigrant labor...

In fact, President Fox pointed this out a few weeks ago:

"If there is anything Mexicans are good at, it is construction."

Switching from President Fox back to the USA Today editorialist:

The USA has always relied on immigrant workers. Irish laborers built the Erie Canal. Chinese ones laid the transcontinental railway.

How odd! That's just about the same thing the Los Angeles Times' Gregory Rodriquez said in his essay "La Nueva Orleans". Imagine - two pundits using the Chinese Coolie system as a paradigm within days of each other. Seriously now: what are the chances of that?

But, it doesn't stop there. Reyes ends with the same call for "reform" as the LAT contributing editor did in his version:

...it is time for Congress and the president to move toward meaningful reform.

Otherwise, just as Katrina exposed a black-white economic divide, the reconstruction effort might ultimately highlight another disaster: our broken immigration system.

Isn't it odd how all these people come to the same conclusions and even use the same examples? Why, it's almost like there's some racial mothership feeding them lines.

Perhaps America's Newspaper might want to raise their standards a bit and only print people who are able to put their country before their race. Please contact them through this form and suggest a change.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:48 AM | Comments (5)

Is the South Florida Sun-Sentinel an American newspaper?

I have my doubts after reading Many migrants flocking to Gulf Coast are exploited, advocates say from William E. Gibson and Ihosvani Rodriguez.

It starts with twelve paragraphs describing various abuses those "migrants" (for you who prefer the truth, they're illegal aliens) are enduring, followed by this transition:

Despite these problems, immigrant workers could become an important part of the reconstruction, just as they have helped communities in Florida and other states that needed labor to build facilities or recover from natural disasters.

And, that's followed by several more paragraphs with a standard discussion of immigration "reform".

In my world - one hopefully shared by 90% of Americans - the idea that illegal aliens are taking rebuilding jobs that should be going to our own citizens - especially those affected by the storm - is shocking and despicable. With hundreds of thousands of Americans thrown out of work by a horrific natural disaster, the idea that anyone would support importing illegal aliens to do jobs that our own citizens could do is distinctly un-American.

Yet, oddly enough, there's nothing in this article that would give anyone any indication that this might not be such a good thing.

Plus, if the jobs were going to American workers, any abuses would have severe ramifications. And, their whole article wouldn't have had to be written, freeing up those reporters for more important tasks.

Does the South Florida Sun-Sentinel support illegal aliens taking jobs from Americans? If they don't perhaps they should start writing articles about what steps are being taken (if any) to get our own citizens working to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Let's ask Gail Bulfin, their "reader editor": gbulfin *at* sun-sentinel.com

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:32 PM | Comments (2)

Has the Bush immigration "reform" scheme been scrapped?

MySA says that Bush's Guest worker plan being shelved. I'm a bit skeptical. First, DHS head Michael Chertoff and Labor's Elaine Chao will be testifying about something as described in "Bush immigration "reform" to be unveiled Tuesday October 18, 2005?"

And, we can see Bush's defacto plan currently underway in New Orleans, as illegal aliens take jobs that should go to Americans.

And, in their article, MySA only provides one statement from those on the other side:

...Conservative Republicans have vowed to block any initiative that would give work visas to immigrants in the country illegally — even if the permits are good only temporarily.

In any case, lawmakers say they are just too busy to pay any attention to the Bush proposal.

"I think Katrina and Rita knocked it off the fall Senate calendar," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is sponsoring a bill modeled after Bush's guest worker initiative. "Given the crunch caused by two Supreme Court nominations, and Katrina and Rita, it's looking like January" will be the earliest the Senate will consider comprehensive immigration bills, Cornyn said.

But in 2006 — an election year — many Republicans won't be eager to wade into a contentious fight over immigration while also confronting rising gas prices and growing concerns over the war in Iraq.

The administration's guest worker proposal is the latest item on Bush's second-term agenda to go on life-support, joining now-stalled plans to overhaul the tax code and the Social Security system...

I fully expect the Bush administration to push ahead with some form of "reform", whether via legislation or via just opening the borders even more than they already have.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Tennessee Small Business Development Center working with Mexican consulate

Like me, there's a 99.9994% chance that you had never heard of the "Tennessee Small Business Development Center" before. However, it provides another small example of the degree to which the government of Mexico has been able to infiltrate their way into our country.

That Center is:

"partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Tennessee Board of Regents, and the State of Tennessee. SBA's funding is not an endorsement of any products, opinions or services. SBA funded programs are extended to the public on a non-discriminatory basis."

The article "State helps Hispanics start businesses" reports on a race-based outreach program they're conducting:

The mayors of Shelbyville and Wartrace met recently with local Hispanic business people and the state executive director of TSBDC, Gregory Sedrick. The focus of the meeting was to inform the Hispanic community about small business development and training that is available free of charge.

Two meetings will be held within the next few weeks: one for start up businesses on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and on Nov. 9 for existing businesses at noon until 2 p.m. on both days. The location for the meetings are to be announced and will be open to all, not just Hispanics wanting assistance...

It's good to know that people of all races will be invited; last time I was in Tennessee I read a report in a small-town paper about the KKK, and I'm sure they're trying to move away from anything even remotely like that.

Unfortunately, the article also contains the following:

The organization also has a partnership with the Mexican government offering classes in Spanish literacy, so that the same counselors can work with Hispanics with their small business needs.

I hear Berlitz has excellent foreign language classes. And, that wouldn't involve what is basically a public agency from getting involved with a mostly hostile foreign government.

For more information about the meetings and service available for those wanting to get into small business, contact [state executive director of TSBDC, Gregory Sedrick] at (615) 653-1293 or e-mail gsedrick *at* mail.tsbdc.org

I'll try to reach him and ask a few questions.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

When race-baiting goes awry

ABC is broadcasting some shows with an additional Spanish-language audio track available through the SAP channel. That's caused some people to complain, and, of course, professional Hispanics have a response. A column by one Roger Hernandez displays some of the anti- response in order to make a point. Of course, trying to use a few quotes in order to portray all opponents in a bad light is fallacious reasoning, but it's all Hernandez has at his disposal:

"There's nothing like aiding and abetting the detioration (sic) of American civialization (sic) than promoting a freakin' (sic) prime-time foreign language," wrote one poster at right-wing cyber-rag FreeRepublic.com, in a language with a grammatical structure and spelling system not entirely the same as English's.

Those wacky FReepers. Or, actually, one FReeper who can't spel that gud.

Said someone else at Drudge Report: "Speak english (sic) or sink to the bottom. Tolerance has gotten us into the mess we are in - it will take big dose of intolerance to get us out."

Now, here's where it begins to go awry, as you no doubt have figured out already. As you know, Brother Matt does not have a forum or comments. In fact, our fallacious reasoner is referring to this thread at the Drudge Retort. Has he been reading drudge.com all this time, thinking that it was that Drudge Report he'd heard about?

One consistent theme revealed the influence of the My-Ancestors-Learned-Why-Don't-Yours school of American history. "When my parents came to this country, they expected to learn English. They expected me to learn English. They didn't expect people to print government forms, building signs, etc. in Yiddish." Wonder what that descendant of Yiddish-speakers thinks of an ideological ally in the same forum who had the following succinct explanation for the evil of Spanish on American TV: "ABC OWNED BY JEWS. End of story!"

Oddly enough, I was unable to find that comment on that Drudge Retort page. The only thing I found through google was this from 7/29/05:

ABC owned by Jews, just like everything TV. End of Story.

Gosh, that's odd.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 03:48 AM | Comments (0)

"Final solution" on CSPAN Million Man March coverage; DUmmies defend Farrakhan

The unverified report here discusses a CSPAN broadcast from 10/14/05 entitled "Hurricane Katrina & Issues Facing African Americans." It was part of their Million Man March coverage.

One of the speakers on CSPAN (Kamau Kambon, author and owner of Blacknificent Books) reportedly said this, according to the rough transcript at the link:

"Now how do I know that the white people know that we are going to come up with a solution to the problem. I know it because they have retina scans, racial profiling, DNA banks, and they’re monitoring our people to try to prevent the ONE person from coming up with the ONE idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve the problem. *tepid applause* Now I don’t care whether you clap or not but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us. And I will leave on that. So we just have to set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not get diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem and the problem on the planet is white people."

Discussing this AP report of the March itself (which doesn't mention the above remarks), the DUmmies do an intricate but most unsubtle dance around "liberal" racism, including this:

99% of what was said by Farrakan today I have read at DU in many threads.

Of that I have no doubt.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 09:22 PM | Comments (4)

Mount Diablo retains name

The attempt to change the name of Mount Diablo has failed. A majestic 3849' peak by any other name would be as crowded with tourons.

[Art Mijares of Oakley] withdrew his first suggestion, Mount Kawukum, after learning the moniker was a gimmick promoted by an early 20th century real estate developer.

He then suggested Mount Yahweh, claiming the word meant not only "God" in Hebrew but also "The Creator" in the tribal language of the Miwok tribe. But a tribe spokeswoman said the word is not listed in the Miwok dictionary.

Posted to California at 10:31 PM | Comments (2)

Mid-level management at NPS politicized?

Do mid-level managers at the National Park Service need to be approved by a political appointee, and are they screened for fealty to Our Leader? Thus is the charge from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

The National Park Service has started using a political loyalty test for picking all its top civil service positions, according to an agency directive released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under the new order, all mid-level managers and above must also be approved by a Bush administration political appointee.

The October 11, 2005 order issued by NPS Director Fran Mainella requires that the selection criteria for all civil service management slots (Government Service grades or GS-13, 14 and 15) include the "ability to lead employees in achieving the ...Secretary’s 4Cs and the President’s Management Agenda." In addition, candidates must be screened by Park Service headquarters and "the Assistant Secretary [of Interior] for Fish, and Wildlife, and Parks," the number three political appointee in the agency...

Whether this group can be trusted in their interpretation of this matter is an open question.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

Supes: no pr0n in L.A. County libraries

The Los Angeles County Supervisors are trying to block pr0n being viewed on computers in County libraries. But, don't despair, as the LAPL is still progressive and has a pro-pr0n policy in effect. Get your pr0n there.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

Arianna, Al Gore vindicated! Priuses recalled due to defect

Remember how the sexy Greek siren was caught attending the Sierra Club's summit meeting in a massive Chevy Suburban? Well, now it can be revealed! Arianna was originally intending to take her Prius to the event, but one day she was tinkering under the hood of her favorite Prius (the purple one), and she downloaded the software to her iBook and decided to hack around with it. She was shocked to discover a devastating software bug that could cause the cars to stall. Immediately picking up her stylish phone, she called Toyota to inform them of this. And, it worked! Now, Toyota is recalling tens of thousands of their vehicles. Is there anything America's favorite pundit cannot do?

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:08 AM | Comments (1)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce using front groups?

Deborah Senn was a candidate for state attorney-general of Washington. A $1.5 million advertising campaign from a group called the VEC (Voters Education Committee) was launched against her, and now she's suing the organization that was behind VEC: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

A complaint filed to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission this week containing testimony from officials at the chamber alleges that the group conspired to oppose Ms Senn's candidacy by using a "front organisation", the VEC, in order to conceal its funding of the campaign. It also alleges that the chamber failed to register its activities and concealed its expenditures.

The secret funding of shell organisations like the VEC was, the complaint also alleges, part of a systematic campaign by the chamber to inject millions of corporate dollars in state attorneys-general and Supreme Court races to further the group's pro-business agenda.

Rob Engstrom, senior vice-president for political affairs at the Institute for Legal Reform, a subsidiary of the chamber, said in testimony that the chamber had targeted 43 Supreme Court and attorney-general races since 2000, much of which had been done through "third party partner organisations". Mr Engstrom also said the chamber had spent $100m on legal reform in targeted states and that the anti-Senn effort was the first time the group had been identified as a partner in a state race.

The chamber has, in the meantime, been caught up in a similar case in Texas, where one of its members, the Texas Association of Business, has been criminally charged with breaking Texas campaign finance rules by using corporate funds to finance a cam-paign to advocate Republican candidates for the state legislature in 2002.

The indictment alleges that the chamber donated $131,573 to the TAB as one of a slew of business donors. The indictment against the TAB, which was brought by Ronnie Earle, district attorney, is loosely connected to the indictments of former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), Mr DeLay's political committee.

Mr Earle contends that TAB used the funds in collaboration with TRMPAC, which has been charged with illegally funnelling corporate donations into Texas campaigns. Mr DeLay has vigorously denied the charges.

In blog-specific news, the USCofC is also on the board of the National Immigration Forum. They're identified as part of the Cheap Labor Lobby. And, the AZ Chamber was one of the leading opponents of Arizona's Proposition 200, although I don't know if the USCofC itself got involved. I have no idea whether the USCofC has used any groups as "fronts" to support illegal immigration, but perhaps we'll get more information as the case progresses.

Posted to Politics at 06:14 AM | Comments (0)

Navy contractor and alleged illegal alien importer found murdered

Back in May 2004 I posted "[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers" about one Miguel Ramos-Amaya. He was accused of importing illegal aliens - including MS-13 gang members - to work on the Navy base in Norfolk, VA. As in, the United States Navy, the one with those ships that are used in wars and to defend the country and all.

Now, comes "Feds investigated contractor found slain at his home":

...Authorities are not tying the killing of Miguel A. Ramos-Amaya, 37, who ran Mickey's Construction, to the federal investigation at this time, said Chris Amos, police spokesman.

But he added, "They're not closing any doors in terms of possible suspects or motives."

Ramos-Amaya was found at his home in the 1100 block of Templar Boulevard about 2 p.m. Monday. Three people in hooded sweatshirts were seen leaving the house, Amos said...

Ramos-Amaya's lawyer, Jon M. Babineau, said Ramos-Amaya had told somebody he had to stop by his house. Babineau theorized that he stumbled upon thieves there.

...In 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities alleged in an affidavit for a search warrant that Ramos-Amaya was using undocumented aliens – including gang members – as cheap labor for his construction business, which did some work on the naval base.

...Ramos-Amaya fought the seizure and worked out a compromise.

He got back half his money, the computers and other assorted items. The government kept the other half of the money, as well as two handguns, court records show.

Ramos-Amaya was not charged in the case and Babineau said the government lacked evidence to show he committed crimes.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 04:56 AM | Comments (0)

Dick Morris to sign book Friday Oct. 14 in the OC, Westside

Former presidential advisor Dick Morris has sent me an email, and I thought I'd share it with you.

As you may know, my wife Eileen and I have just written a new book entitled Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race. It argues that Hillary Clinton is the inevitable Democratic nominee and that Condoleezza Rice would not only be a great president, but the person most likely to beat Hillary.

I am going to be in Los Angeles, California on Friday October 14th.

I'll alert my readers.

I will be signing books at Costco in Orange County at 12:00pm and Barnes & Noble on 1201 3rd Street in Santa Monica at 7:30pm.

Yes, well, what with the high price of gas and all, and the Westside being on the other side of town, well, sir, it's like this...

I would love to meet you there and to personalize my signature to you or anyone to whom you would like to make a gift.

I look forward to possibly meeting you.

Yours,
Dick Morris

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:36 AM | Comments (2)

Dolphins spotted in Lake Pontchartrain; DO NOT APPROACH!

Breaking: "Eight dolphins seen in Lake Pontchartrain".

Our sources indicate that these might be the killer dolphins that were set loose by the storm. We warn you: DO NOT APPROACH! These creatures may in fact be loaded.

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)

TX Gov. Rick Perry unveils "blueprint for border security"

From this:

...Saying he is tired of waiting for the federal government to do its job, Texas Gov. Rick Perry unveiled what he called a comprehensive blueprint for border security, which includes the use of the Texas National Guard for training and for deployment in emergencies...

The governor said the National Guard troops would be used only for emergencies and not for routine patrolling of the 1,200-mile long Texas-Mexico border...

...Perry's plan calls for state money to hire additional police officers in border counties, and deployment of four 50-member teams of state troopers who can quickly move to an area where border violence or an upsurge in illegal immigration is reported.

He also called for the construction of "border jails," saying the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends tens of thousands of illegals and suspicious persons each year that it releases on their "promise to appear in court" simply because there is no place in the sparsely populated border region to hold them...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:58 PM | Comments (3)

Memo to Congress: Exercise Authority Over U.S. Citizenship

From this:

U.S. Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., presided at a House hearing last week entitled "Birthright Citizenship, Dual Citizenship and the Meaning of Sovereignty." It's unfortunate that this important subject received little media coverage.

The statistics are shocking. At least 383,000 babies are born in the United States every year to illegal immigrants; that's 10 percent of all U.S. births and about 40 percent of indigent births.

The cost to U.S. taxpayers is tremendous because all those babies, called anchor babies, claim birthright citizenship. Their mothers and other relatives then sign up for a vast stream of taxpayer benefits...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 10:51 AM | Comments (4)

"To get Canadian Citizenship do you have to be fluent in French?"

Now, where else do you think you'd find a thread with that title but here? Au revoir, ma DUmmette.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)

Ron Paul "busts Bush police state"

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) appeared on a radio show (OK, it was Alex Jones' radio show, but let's conveniently forget that bit), and according to this he said, among others, the following:

-Upcoming indictments of Bush administration officials will be far more damaging than most have expected.

-The Bush administration is attempting an end run around the Constitution by creating a militarized police state to take effect in the event of an avian flu pandemic – one that would include gun confiscation and ultimately martial law.

-The administration's aggressive posture toward Iran, Syria, North Korea and China is "delusional."

As for the first, we can only hope. As for the last, I haven't really been following that that closely, but Bush might have caused NK to back down, or they might just be playing with us. As for the middle, I wouldn't go quite that far. But, I'd come close.

Posted to Politics at 06:53 AM | Comments (0)

Petition: build a fence along the Mexican border

The site WeNeedAFence.com has a petition urging the creation of a 2000 mile fence along the Mexican border. They envision more of a barrier zone, consisting of two chain link fences and an interior road for patrol vehicles. Cameras and similar devices would monitor intrusions. One or two hundred entry points would be provided along the length of the fence. The cost would be four to eight billion.

Alternatively:

Lee Plank, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Diamond Manufacturing Company in Wyoming, Pa., says his company has not been approached about border security fences, but, he said, they would be a good idea. "I think they'd have to be about 10 feet high," he told WND, and would cost "about $636,000 a mile" to build. That's about $1.27 billion for 2,000 miles of border fence, similar to the government's figures.

You need a buffer zone for patrols and also to provide a backup in case the first fence is breached, so they'd need to double those figures or construct a second fence out of wire.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 04:31 AM | Comments (4)

"Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy"

The titular book from the former Reagan administration official is due on April 11, 2006.

From a recent column:

Last week I had an interesting experience. I was asked to testify before a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. I made it clear to them that I was a Republican, but they said they wanted me anyway. I suppose that they knew that I have become very disturbed by the Republican Party’s fiscal policy and they presumed that I would attack it. I did not disappoint them.

Posted to Politics at 02:18 AM | Comments (3)

Media Matters for America defending al Jazeera

Believe it or don't! MMFA is taking issue with a Fox graphic. In case it disappears, here's the full post:

Only on Fox: USMC captain in Control Room film labeled "TRAITOR?" for taking job at Aljazeera

During the October 11 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, the network suggested that former Marine Corps captain Josh Rushing may be a "traitor" for taking a job with Qatar-based news network Aljazeera. While co-host Alan Colmes was promoting Rushing's upcoming appearance on the show, saying that "a former U.S. Marine captain will be here to defend his decision to take a job at a television network that is frequently criticized for its anti-American coverage," a picture of Rushing appeared on the screen, with text below it asking, "TRAITOR?"

Rushing gained national attention after his appearance in Control Room, a 2004 documentary about Aljazeera filmed over a six-week period around the time of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. When Control Room was filmed, Rushing was a military spokesperson stationed at United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Forward Headquarters in Qatar; his increasing unease with the military's representations of the war was featured prominently in the documentary. Rushing, who resigned from the military after the Pentagon ordered him to cease granting interviews about the documentary, will appear on Aljazeera International, the forthcoming English-language news channel.

This was posted by "A.D.", who appears to be:

Anna Dimond has worked in research and production for a variety of media outlets and think tanks, including the Norman Lear Center, ABC News, and Air America Radio. Most recently, she worked as a documentary story producer for LMNO Productions in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Barnard College and master's degrees in global media from the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. Dimond is a member of the Research Department at Media Matters for America.

Coming soon from MMFA: "Tokyo Rose was just misunderstood".

Posted to Terrorism at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

Massachusetts Public Schools Requiring Teachers to Wear "Gay and Lesbian Coming Out Day" support Ribbons?

October 11 was "Gay and Lesbian Coming Out Day". According to this second-hand report from a hitherto unknown site:

My friend -- who works as a "permanent substitute teacher" -- was presented with her ribbon upon reporting to school yesterday and "strongly urged" to wear it.

If confirmed, this could be dynamite! Except, of course, it would all be explained away and ignored by the MSM.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 08:18 PM | Comments (1)

"How does it feel to be a black guy that can swim?"

Here's an essay on "liberal" hypocrisy:

...The cover of last March's Sports Illustrated on Campus featured a picture of Eastern Michigan basketball player Henry Bekkering with a caption that read, "How does it feel to be a white guy with hops?"

...And what else would you expect? Everyone knows white kids can't play.

But imagine if the cover had featured something equally as stereotypical about another race.

What if MAAC Diver of the Year Chris Coles were featured on the cover with the caption, "How does it feel to be a black guy that can swim?"

Or Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen asking, "How does it feel to be a yellow guy that can tackle?"

Or what if PGA star Vijay Singh were on the cover and the caption read, "How does it feel to be a red guy that can drive a golf ball 300 yards?"

After his mandatory racial-sensitivity training course, the editor of the magazine would be looking for a new job tomorrow.

But it's all fun and games as long as it's white guys we are talking about.

Sometimes, the blind eye we turn to racist comments about white people isn't quite so innocent, however...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

"Immigration Deja Voodoo"

Here's more on the 1986 amnesty scheme and how the current amnesty schemes will end up doing the same things. A snippet:

It is clear the 1986 immigration "reform" legislation was an abject failure. It did not stem the flow of illegal aliens, since we now have many more times the number of illegal aliens in the US than we did before 1986. The legalization process created a huge venue for fraud. Legalization included a Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) provision that allowed illegal aliens who could establish they worked in certain types of agriculture during certain time periods to gain legalized status. This opened the door to massive fraud.

And, as detailed in Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report, "Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program".

The legalization adjudication system, counting on the "expert" numbers in the few hundred thousands, was soon completely overwhelmed. Temporary adjudicators were quickly hired on contract and given little training. Documentary evidence provided by the alien applicants was given little review and analysis and sometimes none. When aliens had no such supporting documentation, they were allowed to simply present a sworn affidavit attesting to their work background, along with an affidavit of another "witness" and these affidavits were accepted as the totality of their supporting evidence (what, an illegal alien lie to get an immigration benefit?). As noted, fraud was rampant and there were few investigative resources to pursue it.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:49 PM | Comments (1)

Chinese farmer extracts live bear bile, gets expelled

Did you know that animal keepers in China and other Asian countries keep bears in order to do live extractions of bile from their gall bladders? Needless to say, this bile is part of traditional Chinese medicine. And, the gallbladders themselves are also sold.

Needless to say, the bile extraction is probably not a painless procedure, and bear farmer Han Shigen found out the hard way that the bears don't like it: he was attacked and eaten by six of them on Monday: "Abuse was too much to bear".

Posted to Miscellania at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

Montgomery County Maryland encounters resistance to day laborer center

From this:

Neighborhood opposition has derailed plans for a day-labor center in Gaithersburg that city and Montgomery County officials agreed this year to create...

Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz said yesterday that the city will consider alternatives but declined to say that he remains committed to such a facility in the municipality of about 52,000 at the center of Montgomery County. He would say only that he remains "committed to solving the concerns" raised by a daily gathering of immigrant laborers on the grounds of a Gaithersburg church.

Until now, Montgomery officials have not encountered serious resistance to day-labor centers. The county has operated one such facility in Silver Spring for years and opened one in Wheaton last month...

Previously: .

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:25 AM | Comments (2)

"Pentagon wants new spying powers in US"

From this:

Claiming it needs greater latitude for the war on terror, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a request from the Pentagon for the right to "covertly" gather intelligence on US citizens in order to determine whether they can recruit them as informants, without telling them that they are doing so on behalf of the US government. Reuters reported Friday that the Pentagon said the measure, which is aimed at the Muslim community in the US, could help them fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan...

The intelligence committee has backed the request as part of the 2006 intelligence spending authorization bill. The full Senate will take up the bill later this month. The Pentagon's request was not included in the House version of the bill, which was passed in June. The bill will now go to the Senate Armed Services Committee...

Posted to Privacy at 02:50 AM | Comments (0)

Is Mickey Kaus right about Davis-Bacon?

As previously discussed, president Bush lifted the Davis-Bacon Act early last month. This was done supposedly in order to speed Katrina rebuilding efforts.

Now, Glenn "Insty" Reynolds links to this Mickey Kaus post that has an email from "a seemingly well-informed source deep within the federal bureaucracy".

The source says Bush did this to make it as easy and quick as possible to get things done, and Kaus ends with this:

In sum: 1. Contra Reed, Bush had a perfectly good, non-political reason for suspending Davis-Bacon. 2. Contra Drum, Davis-Bacon doesn't just boost wages. It creates lots of "archaic red tape" and wastes much more money than just the increase in workers' pay...

This government source might be completely right, or he might be feeding Kaus a line, or he might just be looking at the elephant's tail.

Other parts of the elephant might include:

- Why didn't this need to be lifted for all those other hurricanes and natural disasters under both Bush and his predecessors? Surely, the argument that Katrina was just so big will not wash.

- Why was Davis-Bacon lifted for three south Florida counties (Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe) that, AFAIK, just suffered more or less minor damage? (Someone should find out how much in new contracts or old is being spent in those counties to deal with Katrina).

- Weren't the first contracts used for Katrina actually pre-existing contracts that had been negotiated well in advance? (Someone verify how much please).

Of course, while lifting Davis-Bacon could have been a noble gesture on Bush's part, I tend to doubt it.

Instead, I put this in the same corrupt category with Bush's continual support for cheap labor and illegal immigration.

I'm sure Glenn Reynolds will cover this disgusting, anti-American scandal any day now.

UPDATE: Poppy did the same thing during Hurricane Andrew. See "Repealing contract rules is repeat Bush blunder".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

Lou Dobbs on illegal aliens rebuilding New Orleans

From 10/10's transcript:

There is new evidence tonight that good-paying New Orleans construction jobs which should, of course, be going to out-of-work Gulf Coast residents are being filled by foreign workers. With most of New Orleans still abandoned, contractors are in a desperate need for workers, even if those workers are in the United States illegally, they say.

...LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A steady flow of Hispanic workers is arriving in New Orleans to clean debris and repair houses and businesses. At least one job placement company has been actively importing foreign-born laborers. This flyer reads, "Add Mexican workers as part of your long-term workforce planning. Supply limited. Order now."

The ad directed at contractors is from Barton Rouge-based Accent Personnel Services, which is finding documented Mexicans for hire under the H2B visa program.

VIRGINIA PICKERING, THE ACCENT GROUP: The amount work that's necessary to be done is unprecedented. We're going to need more than we can have here. We have people coming from all over the United States to come down and help in this event, but even they are having trouble finding enough people to be here to work.

SYLVESTER: But critics are quick to slam the ad, saying it abuses the H2B visa program that is supposed to bring in foreign workers only if American workers are not available.

ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERS USA: It seems difficult to believe that in the wake of Katrina there are no American workers willing to do these jobs. And, of course, this is -- essentially, it sounds like a body shop that's renting out cheap workers.

SYLVESTER: The Davis-Bacon Act was waived, allowing companies to pay less than the prevailing or average wage in the rebuilding efforts. New Orleans is now a magnet for low-skill, low-wage employees.

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis has two concerns, that some of the new workers may be illegal aliens and jobs are not being kept open for local residents.

CYNTHIA WILLARD-LEWIS, NEW ORLEANS COUNCIL MEMBER: It's critical that the people who live in this city, who give it its heart, its soul, its spirit come back. And so it is essential that the jobs be there for them to return.

SYLVESTER: And the Reverend Jesse Jackson shares that same view. He's leading a caravan of buses bringing 600 New Orleans residents back to the city. They're scheduled to arrive here tomorrow around noon -- Lou.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

I stumped Tamar Jacoby

Earlier tonight, I attended the appearance at the Los Angeles Public Library of immigration "reform" maven Tamar Jacoby. I managed to ask a stumper of a question; more on that after an overview of her remarks.

What she said was basically a live performance of one of her columns. My summary is very long, so feel free to skip ahead.

She started out discussing a focus group that she watched through two-way glass. It consisted of 12 women and 12 men from Dallas discussing immigration matters. She couldn't belive her ears and eyes! These yahoos wanted to send them all back, install machine gun nests on the border, etc. etc.

Then, she went into a standard bit about facing the reality that we have 11 million illegal aliens in the U.S. In fact, we wouldn't be rebuilding New Orleans if not for those "immigrants." Yes, that's right, she supports illegal aliens ("IAs") taking rebuilding jobs from U.S. citizens.

Then, she said that IAs don't get welfare. I'm sure that they do indeed get various forms of welfare in many states. And, of course, there's also all of the other spending that could be considered under the welfare banner: increased schooling and medical costs and on and on.

Then, she actually said it was a good thing that IAs have now displaced American workers in meatpacking plants. The IAs do the dirty jobs that keep the rest of us employed; she actually referred to "anglo teenage kids working in the summer" who are kept employed by the cheaper laborers below them.

Then, she urged the audience to face the "reality of existence" in our modern world. And, she accused Americans of "closing our eyes" to illegal immigration and "sticking our heads in the sand": enjoying the benefits while denying it exists.

Then, she said there was "no dent" in illegal immigration despite increased border enforcement.

Then, she discussed the building consensus in Washington in favor of immigration "reform". Politicians "from Bush to Kennedy" support it. (Are they really that far apart?)

Then, "most employers would rather use legal workers". She said that Tyson would rather use legal workers than face prosecution. (As if!)

Then, she discused how all these IAs live "in the shadows" and we don't know who they are.

Then, guess what: she described how the Dallas yahoos started to come around after discussing this matter amongst themselves.

Then, she claimed we're pretending all those illegal alien children aren't here. (The $11 billion school bond for California - which, even after that's spent won't have built enough seats - tends to contradict that).

Then, another call to face reality, and a statement that "enforcement only" systems don't work.

Then, finally, guess what again: after discussing this amongst themselves for almost an hour, the yahoos in Dallas came around! They realized that we can't deport them all. They realized that "making them miserable so they'll leave" wouldn't work. They realized how dependent they were on their smiling foreign workers. The yahoos came around!

After the speech, only a few people got to ask questions and I was not among those. While a couple people had OK questions, a couple were mostly coherent far-lefties.

I thought the session was going to be two hours, but it was only an hour and I thought I was out of luck. However, we all adjourned to a buffet outside and I was able to ask a couple questions before a much smaller audience.

So, here's the stumper: I stated that all those "guest" workers will have U.S. citizen children and because of the sympathetic (euphemistically speaking) media and Democratic politicians, we won't be able to force them to go home. I'll give her this: rather than trying to duck the question she flat out stated that she didn't know what to do about that. Then she, I and another attendee briefly discussed the 14th Amendment, but this is clear: this is one of those questions that you have to ask those who promote "guest" worker programs. If our "guests" end up staying, it's not a "guest worker" program at all. That, when asked enough and publicly enough, will tend to erode whatever credibility the promoters might have had to begin with.

I also asked if she knew of a guest worker program that had worked, and she said no. She says that whatever new program we'll come up with will be better than the Bracero program and those in France, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, et al.

Then, I stated that Bush does almost no interior and workplace enforcement now, and we shouldn't trust him to do it in the future under a new program. Once again, she goes on faith and says that with the right program that won't be a problem. Ditto when I pointed out that the 1986 amnesty's enforcement provisions were gutted by the Dems.

Then, finally, I brought up the matter of Illinois state Senator Martin Sandoval. She believes that the "fifth column" effect (her words) is of no real consequence, and we don't need to worry about it.

Needless to say, the hundreds of entries here and all those on other sites pointing out Mexico's continual attempts - and successes - at interfering in our internal politics tends to cast a great deal of doubt on her rosy scenario.

So, let me suggest that every chance you get, you yourself go out to such events and start asking tough questions. And, make sure they're questions that can't be answered with just a "trust Bush", such as the stumper above.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:13 PM | Comments (2)

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) to lose in 2006

I'm making a prediction that in 2006, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) will lose - and lose big - if fellow Republican John D. Jacob runs against him.

As previously discussed, last year Cannon faced off against Matt Throckmorton. Cannon won in the primary 58 to 42. He also spent a great deal of money: $600,000. They're both millionaires and Jacob could spend up to a million of his own money on this. So, it will be a bit more of a fair fight, and, in that case I expect Cannon to lose.

Previously: "The David Safavian, Grover Norquist, Chris Cannon connection".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:39 PM | Comments (2)

Georgia murders prompt calls for reform

Remember Randall Robinson's wild allegation? Well, he's got competition from Tisha R. Tallman, the "southeast regional counsel with the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund".

She comments on the recent robbery-murders of illegal aliens in the guest editorial "Stop anti-immigrant violence". As I predicted, an "immigrants rights" group has stepped into the breach to call for reform:

Our current broken immigration system has fueled, among other things, violence against contributing members of our community.

I am referring to the recent murders, beatings and rape of Latino agricultural farm workers in South Georgia. Has our society gotten to the point that labels such as "illegal" connote "otherness" to such a degree that our immigrant brothers and sisters are beaten to death as a matter of course?

Considered in isolation, those allegations are bordering on the insane. The perps were apparently black, a fact that isn't mentioned in her screed. Were they motivated by racism or xenophobia or anti-immigrant sentiment, or were they motivated by money? Has beating to death illegal aliens been made a reduced charge, or is it just as illegal as legal residents and citizens?

But, wait, there's an even more inflammatory allegation to come:

Instead, we ignore the dysfunctional immigration system and go after the individual immigrants who are trying to provide for their families. We are quick to point out scarce resources, job loss and depressed wages, without digging deeper. Now, the blood is on all our hands.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 03:15 PM | Comments (4)

California Teachers Association wants $40 million line of credit

As blurbed here, the CTA's controller, Carlos Moreno, says it's already spent all of the money it expects to get over the next three years from the recent $60 annual fee it charged its members to conduct their anti-Arnold campaign.

Now, they want a $40 million line of credit.

From the controller's affadavit in this PDF file:

Since June 21, 2005, CTA has continued to spend considerable sums of mone on the initiative campaign. Spending this money has necessitated CTA obtaining a $14 million loan. We are currently paying interest on that loan. CTA has spent the money on the initiative in reliance [on the $60 increase]...

CTA is in the process of negotiating a necessary $40 million line of credit. The proposed terms for the new line of credit call for the income stream from the $60 dues increase, together with CTA's other ongoing income, to pay back the principal and interest. If the TRO is granted, it will greatly harm or destroy CTA's ability to get this line of credit. If CTA is unable to get this line of credit, there is a significant risk that an outstanding $20 million line will be called. Millions of CTA's members dues dollars are possibly at stake...

Previously: "Don't believe the California Teachers Association TV commercials".

UPDATE: From this:

The governor's people have tallied up the money raised so far by the unions against his initiatives, accounted for transfers among the committees and say the total now tops $100 million...

Posted to California at 02:29 PM | Comments (2)

Huntington speech protested; "Mexican rights"; a different kind of assimilation

Harvard professor Samuel Huntington spoke at Texas A&M yesterday as part of their Distinguished Lecture Series. Two hundred or so protesters were outside telling him to go home.

...But the current wave of immigration, which has been going on since 1965 and has been dominated by Mexican immigrants, has been different, Huntington contended. Because there have been so many such immigrants - legal and illegal - and they are so near the country they were born in, they have been able to resist assimilation and instead create pockets of the country where their culture dominates, he argued.

"To the Mexicans, the Southwest is their turf, after all," he said, reminding the audience that at one point the land he was standing on Monday belonged to Mexico. "They feel they have a particular right to be there."

The splitting of America from one strong national identity into two already is starting to show the signs of a developing backlash, he said...

Outside, the protesters were working overtime to prove his points:

Nearby, professor Armando Alonzo, a founding member of the Mexican American Latino Faculty Association and a researcher of Southwest history, took a similar stance. His organization could not support such defamatory views, he said.

Hispanics have been coming to America since 1848 and have constantly assimilated, he explained. The current process might end up being slower than in the past, but it is occurring, he said.

"I think if he was to look at the newer research, it would show that Mexican immigrants are in the process of making those adjustments," he said. "These immigrants make valuable contributions in their own ways."

Obviously, there's a bit of a problem. For instance, from the picture above we see one of the signs saying, "You're standing on stolen land". That doesn't sound too much like assimilation to me. The other signs I can't make out, but one looks to be from LULAC, some of them are in Spanish. Yet more Alonzo-style assimilation for you. And, here's some more:

Outside the building in the minutes before the speech, Father Raymond Chavez of Santa Teresa Catholic Church in Bryan stood among dozens of members of his flock as he wore a T-shirt stating "Mexican!" underneath his black jacket...

The Mexico native said it wasn't difficult to rally his parishioners - many of whom are immigrants themselves - to attend the protest.

"We don't agree with him, of course," he said. "We have to defend our Mexican rights, our human rights."

Previously: "More lame attempts to diss Samuel P. Huntington".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:53 PM | Comments (1)

Oklahoman brings kids to Brooklyn to experience "diversity"; kids beaten, called "cracker"

I'm sure you could have seen that coming from a mile away, and the NYDN has the details here (or here):

City education officials are investigating the claims of a pair of boys from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn to experience diversity, and instead say they got schooled in racism and violence.

Mom Lisa Brown, 33, told the Daily News she relocated her family from their small Oklahoma town so her husband, a Brooklyn native and social worker, could more easily find work and her sons could experience different people and ways of life.

Brown enrolled her sons, Sloan, 12, and J.T., 13, at Ebbets Field Middle School in Crown Heights. But when the boys, who are white, showed up, their mom said, they got a chilling indication of what was to come.

"Oh my gosh, we are going to have fun this year," a security guard muttered, according to Brown.

Things quickly got worse.

Sloan was beaten mercilessly, called "cracker" and "white boy," and chased into traffic by his new classmates, his family said...

You won't believe what happened next! Oh, sorry, I forgot you're familiar with "multiculturalism". Yes, you're right. The school officials did nothing until this got press attention. And, none of NYC's "civil rights" or "human rights" organizations are involved. And, yes, the victims will eventually be blamed and perhaps even called "racists". And, of course, this whole story will fall down the "liberal" memory hole since, well, see, it's like this...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 06:13 AM | Comments (2)

Jim Gilchrist: The Crushing Economic Burden of Illegal Immigration

There's a long speech with a lot of facts and figures here.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:11 AM | Comments (1)

Don't like the test results? Switch to Spanish. Thankfully, Arnold vetoes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would allow high schools to administer No Child Left Behind-mandated tests in Spanish. Now, some of you out there might think that giving such tests in Spanish is a lunatic idea leading to language balkanization and the like. But, you probably aren't a Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego)-grade "liberal":

"Forcing newly arrived students to test in English measures their language ability, not knowledge of school subjects... The bill didn't exempt students from taking the tests and wouldn't keep us from our goal of teaching them English; it simply would have given us a better tool to test what they know in science, math and other subject areas."

"Newly arrived" is Ducheny for "illegal aliens". Science, math, and other similar subjects don't demand the English proficiency of things like essay writing. And, not testing students in English will take the heat off teaching them English, meaning they'll end up even worse off.

The tests in question have been already dumbed down far enough, and still there are incredible problems: 20% of California high school seniors can't pass junior high test.

The bottom line is this: if "liberals" and corrupt "conservatives" weren't forcing us to educate hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from the Third World this would not be an issue.

Posted to California at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

"Why Miers must be defeated"

From this:

Imagine if Bill Clinton had nominated his personal attorney and White House counsel to a post on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Somehow, I can't imagine my conservative friends supporting the nominee – particularly if there were questions about controversial documents being destroyed that might actually shed light on scandals of the past.

The stunning series of articles by WND columnist Jerome Corsi, raising serious and nagging questions about Harriet Miers' role as chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission and the cover-up of the way that story intersects with George W. Bush's National Guard service, points up why this kind of cronyism was frowned upon by the Founding Fathers.

In fact, this is the very reason the framers of our Constitution called for the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate in all Supreme Court nominations.

If we are all honest with ourselves, it is clear Miers' name was put forward for one major reason – she is a friend and confidante of the president. Her selection is clearly a reward for services rendered and for her loyalty to the president...

Posted to Politics at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

California Teachers Association in financial difficulties?

Are the anti-Arnold forces having financial problems? Reports are that they're borrowing money reportedly to pay off earlier loans. How much they owe, how much they want, and what it's for has not yet been confirmed. Developing...

Posted to California at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

Does the L.A. Times support displacing African-Americans from New Orleans?

I'm left with that distinct impression after reading the scandalous article "Immigrants Rush to New Orleans as Contractors Fight for Workers". Perhaps the black community should ask that paper to clarify its stance, especially after publishing an editorial from Gregory Rodriguez which supported illegal aliens taking rebuilding jobs from Americans.

From the latest LAT article:

...Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers - who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona - gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city.

With 140,000 homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is undergoing the nation's largest reconstruction effort and its new workforce is largely Latino. No one knows how many immigrants have descended here since Katrina ravaged the city five weeks ago, but their presence is visible throughout the city.

[reports on a couple who wired "half of their paycheck to their family back home"; "If we can make enough money, we would like to buy a house and bring our children to New Orleans."]

So, illegal aliens are not just rebuilding an American city. Many of them are probably being indirectly paid out of federal or state money. And, they're then sending a large portion of that money out of the country. If you're an American, that's an outrage. If you're the Los Angeles Times, that's just a news story.

[...contractor Perry Custer is importing workers from Atlanta and Houston; a "temporary employment service of sorts for laborers" has been created...]

...Contractors say one advantage in using [the service] is that they don't have to deal with paperwork or check to see whether the workers are in the U.S. legally.

"There is a 'don't ask, don't tell,' mentality right now," Custer said. He added that there didn't seem to be any effort to crack down on illegal immigrants. "If they do who will rebuild New Orleans?"

How about we do what we have to to encourage and enable New Orleans residents to rebuild their own city? Or, at the least, other Americans rather than illegal aliens? What's the American way?

Only in the twenty-fourth paragraph do we get some hint that this might not be such a good thing after all:

The influx of Latino workers is raising concern among city officials. Last week, Associated Press reported, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin asked local businesspeople, "How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?"

Believe it or don't: out of 34 paragraphs, that is the only contrary information in the whole article.

"They may be the new service class in New Orleans," said Lawrence Powell, a historian at Tulane University. "It only takes a few people to put down roots and begin the chain of migration. I'm wondering if we're seeing the first signs of a population swap."

Yes, indeed. And, un-American sources will be there, cheering it on. If you still subscribe to the Los Angeles Times, just stop.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:02 PM | Comments (5)

The West Wing, Vinick, Minuteman Project, illegal immigration, and clueless liberals

On last night's show, The West Wing's crack writers featured Republican candidate Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda...???; NYT: "doing his fabulous mean-guy act"...???) proposing a "guest" worker plan in order to either get the "Latino vote" or hamstring his opponent, Matt Santos (Jimmy "Jiminy" Smits). (It came on after baseball plus Janeane Garofalo is on it, OK?)

Various aspects of this episode are discussed in "Hollywood Delusion: New York Times Could Endorse GOP Presidential Candidate" and this post.

From memory, this is how the scene where they discuss the "guest" worker plan plays out:

Consultant #1 to Vinick: You're going to meet with the Minuteman Project on the border on Monday.

Consultant #2 gets a very worried look and says: You mean the vigilantes?

Consultant #1: They aren't bothering anyone, plus they're popular with the base.

Consultant #3, played by Ron Silver: Why not just meet with the local KKK?

It's pretty obvious what the writers of this show think, or what they don't think as the case may be. Specifically, they don't seem to have much knowledge of the important issues of "guest" worker schemes and illegal immigration in general. And, that worried look from Consultant #2 is supposed to be the one the viewer has; after all, isn't the assessment of Ron Silver's character the correct one?

If the West Wing would like to be a bit more reality-based, they could have a consultant on there discussing how the "Hispanic Vote" is a myth. They could have another discussing how a "guest" worker program would play with the real GOP base: those banks, growers, and other companies that profit off cheap foreign labor. (For balance, they could have another on there discussing the Dem's base in far-left, open borders, Ford Foundation-sponsored groups like MALDEF and the National Council of The Race). And, they could have yet another pointing out that the only violence associated with the Minuteman Project has come from the other side, and that that other side is generally very far-left, anti-American, racially-oriented and favors a literally open border.

Of course, don't expect one of their crack writers to know what's really going on.

Posted to Celebrities at 12:02 PM | Comments (1)

WaPo gives free ad to Colorado's ProgressNow outfit

The WaPo offers "Dean Camp's Tactics Applied to Colorado", a "Special to The Washington Post" article by Brian Faler:

A small advocacy group in Colorado is betting that it can take one state-of-the-art Web site [ProgressNowAction.org], add half a million dollars or so and end up with a potent tool that will enable it to organize the state's entire community of liberal activists.

ProgressNow, formed two years ago, is borrowing some of the online tactics that helped fuel the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean, now the Democratic National Committee chairman. It has invited activists from across the state to use its Web site free to push most any issue they like...

It is one of the more unusual -- and ambitious -- efforts in grass-roots organizing at the state level. Notably, the group has no connection to the Democratic Party, which has launched its own effort to rebuild its state parties...

This article is reminiscent of an advertorial one might read in a trade mag, and it's discussed in more depth here. It's also worth looking at this organization's board of directors, one of whom is this:

Jared Polis is the President and Founder of the Jared Polis Foundation as well as Chair of the Colorado State Board of Education. As Chair, he will focus on recruiting and retaining quality teachers as well as spearheading the School for a New America. This is a new non-profit educational endeavor that will provide literacy tutoring for hundreds of recent immigrants to Colorado. He is a businessman and political activist who has founded and run several high-tech start-ups including Bluemountain.com, American Information Systems, Inc., Proflowers.com and Dan’s Chocolates.

But, wait, there's much more about him and ProgressNow in "Tying up the loose ends on Colorado's guide for the illegal alien". Even if the WaPo wants to give free ad space to far-left groups, perhaps they should consider publishing a correction about at least one of the things in their article.

For instance, at the page Colorado Democratic Initiatives and Organizations from the Colorado Democratic Party, the Secretary of the "Democratic Education Initiative" is listed as Scott Groginsky, with an email of "scott@jaredpolis.com". Groginsky is or was Polis' "Education Policy Director".

And, at the page "Elected Democratic Officials" from the Boulder County Democrats, Polis himself is listed as such an official.

I don't know exactly how the Washington Post defines "ties", but just those connections certainly meet my definition.

Please write to ombudsman *at* washpost.com and ask them to improve their coverage.

Posted to Politics at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

Janitors' lawsuit against WalMart still on

NEWARK, N.J. -- A federal judge has allowed a group of illegal immigrant janitors to proceed with a lawsuit seeking overtime pay from discount retailer Wal-Mart.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway on Friday threw out a motion from Wal-Mart lawyers to dismiss the collective action suit filed by the janitors, who were among those rounded up in immigration raids at Wal-Mart stores two years ago.

While allowing claims on overtime pay and paying below the minimum wage to stand, Greenaway did dismiss three other claims against Wal-Mart, including one that alleged workers were subject to involuntary servitude.

The judge also tossed out a charge that the company violated federal racketeering laws but gave the plaintiffs 45 days to submit more evidence to support their claim...

Previous coverage of this suit here, and see this similar case.

Suits like this are a good thing, as they tend to drive up the cost of illegal labor and disincentivize it. If the government won't do their job, let greedy lawyers effectively do it.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:00 AM | Comments (1)

Schtroumpfland suffers vicious attack

... and it's about damn fucking time.

Posted to WackyHumor at 04:49 AM | Comments (0)

Bush immigration "reform" to be unveiled Tuesday October 18, 2005?

According to this, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will appear on that date at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration, and they might unveil president Bush's plan to drive his popularity under 30%, otherwise known as his immigration "reform" plan.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:18 AM | Comments (1)

More Morton Kondracke immigration idiocy

Like a minor league member of the Open Borders lobby, Morton Kondracke of Roll Call magazine continues to discuss immigration "reform", the latest in "Will Bush Step Up - Or Let Immigration Issue Fester Further?". Just like another minor leaguer, he references Tamar Jacoby in the piece. Not only that, he even briefly mentions "Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-reform National Immigration Forum". And, he ends with this:

It's up to Bush to step into this morass and lead. He claimed in his Tuesday press conference to still have "plenty" of political capital left to achieve his goals. Keeping immigration out of the hands of demagogues is worth his expending some.

Like David Brooks, TJ, and others of that ilk, he's just on the other side.

Previously: "FAIR Responds to Sham Immigration Poll" and "Mor-TON! Didn't you get the memo?"

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:05 PM | Comments (2)

George F. Will on Tom Tancredo

Will discusses Tancredo in a largely fair column entitled "The GOP's Border Guard". Unfortunately, he also works in a few myths and canards.

Tancredo knows his candidacy would be quixotic, and he worries that if he wins few votes his issue will be discounted. But he also knows that presidential primaries are, among other things, market research mechanisms whereby unserved constituencies are discovered and dormant issues brought to life.

Which is what worries Republican officials. They desperately want to avoid giving offense to the Hispanic vote, the rapidly growing -- and already the largest -- cohort in play in American politics.

Now, see The "Hispanic Vote" myth for all the many reasons that concept is wrong.

The basic problem is that the nation's economy is ravenous for more immigrant labor than the system of legal immigration can currently provide.

Last I checked, there are millions of Americans out of work, including hundreds of thousands from Katrina. Just over half of black males in NYC between 16 and 64 are employed. And, there's the not inconsequential matter of throwing cheap labor at a problem when mechanization and automation are the better solution for this country.

Furthermore, about 11 million illegal immigrants are in America. It would take a lot of buses -- 200,000 of them, bumper-to-bumper in a convoy 1,700 miles long -- to carry them back to America's border. America will not do that -- will not round up and deport the equivalent of the population of Ohio.

Tancredo agrees, and insists that no such draconian measure is necessary. His silver bullet is to "just enforce the law" -- the law against hiring illegal immigrants. Give employers computerized means of checking the status of job applicants, and, he says, the ones here illegally will go home. If only it were that simple.

No, it isn't that simple as long as corrupt politicians are in charge and are unable or unwilling to crack down on corrupt businesses.

Posted to Politics at 03:47 PM | Comments (3)

The "Hispanic Vote" myth

One of the myths propagated by open borders advocates and their enablers is that there's a monolithic "Hispanic Vote" and that the GOP needs immigration "reform" to get that vote.

First, take a look at these three articles: "Bush Didn't Win 44% of Hispanic Vote - The Smoking Exit Poll", "Hispanic Republicans – A Media Myth", and "Discredited Hispanic Vote Share Myth Goes Marching On At RNC", and this comment (redstate.org/comments/2005/10/6/21218/0889/11#11).

Now, let's take a look at the "thoughts" of the Bush-Cheney 2004 webmaster:

It flies in the face of all the conventional wisdom dictating that we [the GOP] don't stand a chance with first-generation Hispanic immigrants... And mind you, this is among Puerto Ricans, traditionally the most Democratic of Hispanics. This is something that needs to be kept in mind during the coming immigration reform debate.

In a way, it's not fair to point out that some minor cog in the Bush-Cheney juggernaut doesn't know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and have no need for immigration "reform". But, it does help illustrate that those pushing this line don't know what they're talking about. (Or, that they're corrupt and are just opening the borders because they're paid to do so and they're hiding behind the vote thing as a smokescreen to what they really want.)

The "Hispanic vote" would seem to be divisible into various categories, just like people of other races: some would be left, some right. And, just as you wouldn't confuse the Italians with the Lituanians, they have different countries of origin. Even if we (incorrectly of course) assume that all people with the same country of origin think alike, should we assume that Cubans think the same way as Mexicans or that Argentinians think the same way as Brazilians? No, that's false as well.

Now, let's examine that thoughts of someone who attended the National Council of La Raza convention:

"I think [the GOP is] very opposed to opening the border"

The speaker's family is from Mexico. Should the GOP really pander to someone who attends a convention from that far-left, Ford Foundation-sponsored group? What if the GOP gives her her wish? Won't that result in more people with "family from Mexico" coming in? And, won't that lead to more people who want to "open the border"? And, won't the GOP pander to that even larger number of people by opening the border? Where does it stop? About 40% of Mexico's current population would like to move to the U.S. Should we allow all of them to come here?

And, do we really want people in the U.S. who want to open the border? Do we really want people who want a race-based immigration policy, just as long as that policy favors their race?

Should the GOP support a race-based immigration policy? Should the GOP give in to the wish of one race to surround themselves with more people of the same race?

Perhaps those who are pushing this meme should determine just how far down the road paved by the Democrats they want to go.

And, it doesn't stop with the points above. This meme is incorrect in other ways as well:

"Politicians Snub Latinos' Real Wishes"

Poll: Texans believe illegal immigration is a serious problem

Florida poll: 2/3 oppose amnesty, 3/4 oppose driver's licenses for illegal aliens

El Paso poll: no driver's licenses for illegal aliens

47% of Arizona Hispanics supported Proposition 200

52% of California Hispanics supported Prop. 187 two months before the vote

Posted to Politics at 02:40 PM | Comments (2)

The Hugh Hewitt Dining Guide

Our favorite BushBot is back with a shocking column:

I was chatting with an administration insider over the weekend. During a sidebar in the conversation, it was intimated to me that President Bush's favorite late-night snack was a "shit sandwich" with tartar sauce on the side. That encouraged me to give it a shot with an open mind...

...The verdict? Earthy, no-nonsense flavor. The tangy contrast of the tartar sauce is initially off-putting, but like Bush, I'm in this game for the long term. I'll give it some time to grow on me. It's easily a B+ snack...

Needless to say, Hugh has provided an update to his post. Some forms of playground humor are well-done and have a grain of truth in them.

(nofollowpolicy in effect)

Posted to Bloggage at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

Rep. Richard Pombo's Swiftian satire: sell 15 National Park properties

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) out of the highway stop known as Tracy in Northern California, has written legislation that would sell 15 National Park properties in order to raise funds. He says this plan was just a "conversation starter" intended to encourage opening up ANWR, and that he has no intention of introducing the legislation.

Nevertheless, the idea that someone would come up with an idea like this illustrates the depth to which many Republican leaders have sunk.

...Pombo's spokesman said the proposal, written by Pombo's House Resources Committee staff, is intended only to influence lawmakers to support an item in the budget bill that would permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

If drilling continues to be banned in the refuge, Pombo's staff argued, the government would have to sell parks as well as advertising space on park buses, trams and ferries to reach the level of revenues expected from oil leases sales in the Alaskan refuge.

...The draft legislation also calls for the sale of several huge nature preserves in Alaska -- including the Lake Clark National Park and the Yukon-Charley Rivers Preserve -- and for commercial development of Theodore Roosevelt Island, a 91-acre wooded island of nature trails in the middle of the Potomac River in Washington. The National Parks Conservation Association estimated that the draft legislation would affect 23 percent of the National Park Service's land...

I never knew about that Island; I wish I'd visited it when I was there. Not all of the properties are National Parks, some are more minor features. Unfortunately, I've only been to one of them, the one that's linked below. And, that one requires you to hike in two miles to visit it (there's a road with restricted access):

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska
Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Noatak National Preserve, Alaska
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska
Eugene O'Neill National Historical Site, California
Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historical Site, Massachusetts
Mary McCleod Bethune Council House, Washington, D.C.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota
Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania
Thomas Stone National Historical Site, Maryland

Posted to OutdoorSports at 07:48 AM | Comments (1)

Picture posting site busted for obscenity, but there's much more to it

The site nowthatsfuckedup.com is one of those "post pics of your wives and girlfriends" type of sites, run by one Christopher Wilson out of Lakeland FL. He's a 27-year-old former cop, and the servers for the site are located in Amsterdam. The site has at least one affiliate banner, active forums, and the membership is $10. But, that's waived if you send in a photo.

On Friday he was charged by Polk County officials with hundreds of counts of obscenity.

According to Sheriff Grady Judd:

"In my 33 years in law enforcement, this was the most horrific, vile, obscene material that I have ever seen... It is beyond the normal person's wildest imagination."

He also chimed in with this:

"It is the most horrific, vile, perverted sexual conduct... It is as vile, as perverted, as non-normal sexual conduct, which rises to the level of obscenity, as we've ever investigated"

Dayuumm! That's what I call an endorsement. Now, at this point in time you might think this is just a bunch of Christian Crusaders from central Florida. But, there's much, much more to this tale.

See, that site was also hosting gruesome pictures of war dead sent in by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. In fact, the site's owner had created a special deal for those soldiers: prove you're serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, or send in a gruesome photo (instead of a wife/girlfriend shot), and get a free subscription.

Needless to say, the resulting popularity of these horrific photos didn't sit too well with the Pentagon, leading them to start an investigation. Even the Council on American-Islamic Relations got involved, complaining about this to the military.

Despite that, the local officials claim that the obscenity charges (which, of course, is just for the sex pics) have absolutely nothing to do with the war dead pics, which are in their own section. Even if I went to the National Suckers Convention, I think he'd have trouble finding people who'd believe that one.

In fact:

Judd said his agency will share its findings with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division.

Judd said Wilson... was warned a few months ago about the content of another Web site he operated. No charges were filed at that time, he said.

The sheriff's office began an investigation after news reports about Wilson's Web site and its posting of apparent war zone photos surfaced...

Judd and Polk officials have waged a long campaign against pornography in the Central Florida county.

But, wait, there's more:

Judd said none of the 20 films and 80 photos that brought about the charges involves pictures of war dead. But Judd confirmed that his detectives did speak with officials with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division before arresting Wilson on Friday.

At this point in time, I think it's worth pointing out that I opposed the reelection of George Bush because I thought he'd be far worse than divided government under Kerry. I believe that at some point in time just about everyone else will admit that, yes, I was right.

It would be nice if the ACLU would spend their days handling cases like this, rather than defacing historic city seals and trying to keep the borders as open as possible.

Posted to Privacy at 02:06 AM | Comments (0)

Jorge Arbusto has a new site

From "Chairman Mehlman Unveils New Spanish Language Web Site":

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman today unveiled the national committee's new Spanish language Web site as part of a continued effort to communicate the President's and Republican Party's message to all Americans. GOP en Espanol is another mechanism that encourages more Latinos to get involved, expands the party's reach, and attracts new Hispanic faces and voices... "As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I think it is important to share our optimistic and results-oriented agenda. Today, we have record numbers of Latino small business owners, achieved historic home ownership rates among Hispanic Americans, and closed the achievement gap in the classroom. But we must continue to work hard and encourage participation, GOP en Espanol is another way for us to do that," concluded Mehlman.

Posted to Politics at 05:03 PM | Comments (1)

Tifton Georgia flies Mexican flag; illegal aliens do "very important work"

The mayor of Tifton, GA is flying the Mexican flag over his (American) city to honor the six illegal aliens who were killed in robberies recently.

Seven people called WTIF radio station Thursday, saying the gesture was inappropriate and that the Mexican and U.S. flags should not fly together.

"I did that as an expression of sorrow to the Hispanic community," Mayor Paul Johnson said. "For those who we offended, I apologize, but I think it was the right thing to do."

...Johnson said he considers immigrants to be a part of the community, who do very important work. "They're here to find the hope of America," the mayor said.

I'm sure he could have found another way to do this that didn't involve flying the flag of a country that continually seeks to violate our laws. And, that last paragraph sets off warning bells. I have no knowledge of this particular mayor, but if someone says something like that I wonder if they or their associates are profiting off illegal immigration in some way.

Tifton claims to be the reading capital of the world. You can read all the books in the world and still learn nothing.

(And, regarding the original crime, you'll note how it seems to have disappeared off the MSM's radar. To see why, look up pictures of the perps, if you can find them.)

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:50 PM | Comments (3)

Linda Chavez' "ethno-centric rant"

Remember the Linda Chavez column where she supported illegal aliens taking Katrina rebuilding jobs?

A letter to the editor of the Daily Republic in Northern California responds to her article:

[Chavez] speculated that the reason we don't see sob stories about the 200,000 Hispanics from New Orleans is that they had their act together so much better than other minorities. The real reason is that they didn't really exist.

New Orleans had a population of about 500,000. By the government's best estimate, including likely illegal aliens, there were just fewer than 15,000 Hispanic people in Orleans Parish in 2000. Even if that population doubled over five years, Ms. Chavez's 200,000 is off by a factor of six or more. Maybe Linda misplaced a decimal point, or maybe she didn't bother checking her facts before launching into an ethno-centric rant...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 08:29 AM | Comments (3)

Don't send fake letters to newspapers: it's California law

Here's a little bit of wackiness from the California Penal Code:

538a. Every person who signs any letter addressed to a newspaper with the name of a person other than himself and sends such letter to the newspaper, or causes it to be sent to such newspaper, with intent to lead the newspaper to believe that such letter was written by the person whose name is signed thereto, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Obviously, we don't want impersonations of other people, but at the same time this might impact people who are playing harmless pranks using completely made-up names. Of course, in that case the defense might be that if there's someone by that same name it was just a coincidence.

In any case, my foray into the morass was occasioned by the story "Consultant used others' names in letter-writing blitz to local newspaper":

Activist and political consultant Richard Salzman liked to sound off about his causes in letters to the editors of Eureka-area newspapers. Other local residents, like R. Trent Williams, Dick Wyatt, and R. Johnson, often backed him up, praising Salzman's points and echoing his jabs at political foes.

Salzman made a name for himself last year by helping Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos defeat a recall attempt backed by the timber industry. Salzman also worked on other successful campaigns in the area.

But his star quickly dimmed when a newspaper revealed that all of those like-minded letters penned over several months actually came from Salzman himself. Now, he's under investigation by local authorities and could face criminal charges for violating a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to send phony letters to newspapers...

On a slightly related note, see "In letters to the editor, too many copycats?"

Posted to Privacy at 02:33 AM | Comments (2)

Julie Myers clears Senate committee

From GovExec:

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today approved, on a 7-2 vote, President Bush's nomination of Julie Myers to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.

The Senate Judiciary Committee now has 30 days to vote on the nominee...

As Reuters' report says here:

Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the just retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She worked for Chertoff when he was at the Justice Department, and she is married to Chertoff's current chief of staff.

Please contact the Judiciary Committee members and urge them to oppose Myers. Previous coverage of this latest instance of Bush not doing his job starts here.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)

Arnold Schwarzenegger vetos driver's licenses for illegal aliens

Details here. Note that the title actually refers to them as "illegal" rather than implying it concerns "immigrants" as a whole.

Now, here's a shocker: Gil Cedillo says he'll keep trying with his campaign to get legal U.S. ID cards into the hands of Mexican citizens.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)

WH: Bush didn't say that God told him to invade Iraq

"Palestinian negotiator" Nabil Shaath claims that Bush told him that God told him to invade Iraq.

Now, the White House is denying that Bush told Shaath that God told him that.

In the BBC doc, Nabil says:

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.

"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Obviously, this is something quite plausible. But, on the other hand, you have to consider the sources.

Posted to Politics at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)

Pat Buchanan opposes Our Leader over Miers, is now liberal

Speaking of Harriet Miers, Pitchfork Pat says:

...In claiming Miers is the most qualified person he knows to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor, President Bush tells us more about himself than her. If she is truly that qualified, why did he hide this extraordinary talent in the paper-shuffling job of White House staff secretary? Why was she not named White House Counsel instead of Gonzales? Why was she not nominated to the U.S. Appellate Court for the District of Columbia to give her judicial experience? If she is that good, why did Bush pass her over for John Roberts?

Twenty-four hours after he picked his personal lawyer for the Supreme Court, George Bush was in the Rose Garden trying to put out the firestorm he had ignited in his own base camp. How's that for political brilliance?

His aides are now demanding that Republican Senators and conservatives rally around their president. They should not. They should tell the president, respectfully, that, though he went with Harry Reid, they will stay with their convictions.

It's stand up time again, as in the days of old.

In other news, Pat Buchanan is now a liberal. In earlier news, see "Over half of WND readers support Bush's impeachment".

Posted to Politics at 06:13 AM | Comments (1)

Don't believe the California Teachers Association TV commercials

Have you seen the TV commercial from the California Teachers Association that includes the following?

"...Now his Prop. 74 allows a principal to fire a teacher without giving a reason or even a hearing. Prop 74, another bad Schwarzenegger idea that hurts our schools."

As you might expect from the CTA, there are some things wrong with that statement:

The teachers association said a technicality in the proposition's wording would let districts fire a teacher without a hearing, although chief attorney Beverly Tucker acknowledged teachers could still seek a hearing after their dismissal. Current law gives teachers 30 days to request the hearing before they are fired.

"When you get that notice, you are fired, but then you have a chance to appeal it," Tucker said. "That actually is a really important distinction, because that determines whether your pay and your medical benefits continue."

Proposition 74 does require two consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluations before a teacher can be fired. Current law requires a district to document a history of poor performance.

Tucker acknowledged that a principal still would not be able to directly fire a teacher, but she said school boards routinely act on the recommendations of principals.

Todd Harris, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team, said it's false to claim that teachers could be fired without a reason.

"The reason for termination is simple: It's because you have received two unsatisfactory job evaluations," he said. "So to suggest that you're fired for no reason is ridiculous."

You just can't trust the CTA or the other anti-Arnold groups.

Posted to California at 03:54 AM | Comments (0)

Larry Ellison to build "castle bigger than a hundred Versailles"

Earlier today, Oracle CEO Larry "Lawrence" Ellison announced his latest plans. He intends to build a "mega-castle" that would span several of his Malibu properties. If there are intervening properties, he intends to build gigantic walkways over them; in some cases he will build monorails. His new residence will be up to 10 stories tall, blocking the sun on portions of one of Barbra Streisand's estates. "It'll be bigger than the friggin' MGM Grand" a jubilant Ellison told a reporter.

This latest move from Sir Ellison (Moldova) follows the news that the founder of PeopleSoft wants to build a 72,000-square-foot, three-story hamlet in Alamo, CA. That's in the East Bay near Mount Diablo:

Alamo resident Bruce Smith, whose family previously owned the 8,000-square-foot home that Duffield hopes to demolish to make room for his new house, said the land was never intended for a residence that will dwarf the 60,645-square-foot Hearst Castle and the 55,000-square-foot White House.

Previously: "Terrifying Larry Ellison plot revealed".

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)

Arnold Schwarzenegger's firefighters photo-op: a set-up?

"Firefighters say they were ordered to attend Schwarzenegger event" the headlines scream. Appearing at a fire in Burbank, Arnold's people did a photo op of him with those fighting the incident. Now, those with whom he posed say they were "ordered and forced" to take part in the photo-op.

But, were they? Obviously, anyone who's seen the various anti-Arnold commercials know that these people are the lowest of the low. Is there the possibility that some of them didn't want to do it, but others did? Could those in the latter camp fear retribution from their fellow union members? And, could this have been a set-up? That is, these firefighters only took part in the photo-op so they can now claim they were forced? Maybe some brave fire fighter will come forward and let us know the truth of this matter.

You have to give the unions credit for being good with propaganda, but it would be much better if Arnold, who is after all an international movie star, could at least match them. He really should consider hiring someone who's a bit more adept at fighting against people like this.

Posted to California at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)

Everglades python tries to eat alligator... and bursts!

You may have seen the picture of a python that tried to eat an alligator and ended up split in half with a burst stomach. It's a real picture, as described here. The photo was taken 9/26/05 in Everglades National Park, and the American Alligator was 6', while the Burmese python was 13'.

The what?

Yes, there are indeed gigantic Burmese pythons in that U.S. National Park. It is Florida after all, and that's where all the strange things go to happen. For more, see "Huge, Freed Pet Pythons Invade Florida Everglades" and this NPS report. These pythons can reach 20 feet long. Want to go camping?

Posted to OutdoorSports at 01:10 PM | Comments (5)

Illegal alien language instructors arrested at Fort Bragg

From "Language teachers arrested at U.S. military base":

Two Indonesians and a Senegalese who worked as foreign language instructors for elite U.S. special operations troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have been arrested on immigration charges, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Army said the three worked at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg. Sgt. Joseph Healy, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, said the three had a purely academic role and "were not exposed to any Army special operations tactics techniques or procedures."

Those arrested were Senegalese Ousmane Moreau, 38 and Indonesians Nurkis Qadariah, 34, and Sayf Rimal, 37. They worked for BIB Consultants Inc., "a Florida-based company that provides language instructors to U.S. Special Forces and other military personnel at Fort Bragg."

Now, read this from the AP:

All employees of the company must go through background checks, and checks on the three men "came back clear," Daniel Guillan, director of government and contracting for the company, told WTVD-TV in Durham.

And, we get a reminder:

"What's important to remember is they did not teach any classified materials, and they were not exposed to any classified materials," JSOC spokeswoman Tina Beller said.

As with other past cases, subcontractors - for one reason or another - end up employing illegal aliens, and the feds take their word that those people are here legally. Robin Hayes (R-NC) wrote to Donald Rumsfeld trying to find out how this could happen.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

Al Gore: "I invented the First Amendment"

Al Gore - in alternate reality #28B the President of the United States - recently preached about television, the Internet, newspapers, etc. etc. I could only take reading a few paragraphs of it, but testify Big Wooden Al, testify:

[...extols First Amendment...]

As a result of these fears, safeguards were enacted in the U.S. -- including the Public Interest Standard, the Equal Time Provision, and the Fairness Doctrine - though a half century later, in 1987, they were effectively repealed. And then immediately afterwards, Rush Limbaugh and other hate-mongers began to fill the airwaves...

I have to wonder, isn't his big speech just an advertisement for his TV channel? And, if he says things like that, does he expect anyone outside of the far-left to take him seriously?

Posted to Politics at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)

Former HHS head Tommy Thompson on board of Verichip Corp.

Last year, I took a long look at the flu vaccine shortage and the incompetence I found was quite shocking. Even after all the other incompetence displayed by the Bush administration in the past year, I still find it hard to believe.

Another story I've covered here concerns a company called VeriChip, which produces a grain-of-rice-sized implantable RFID chip. Their slogan is "Get Chipped[TM]", and they even have a ChipMobile that drives from town to town encouraging Citizens to undertake the quick, painless procedure.

As it turns out, back in July, the former head of Health and Human Services Department, Tommy G. Thompson, joined their board:

VeriChip is a subsidiary of Applied Digital and the only company to provide both implanted and external RFID security solutions for people, their assets, and their environments. From the world's first and only FDA-cleared, human-implantable RFID microchip to the only patented active RFID tag with skin-sensing capabilities, VeriChip leads the way in next-generation RFID technologies. Today, over 3,000 installations worldwide in healthcare, security, industrial, and government markets benefit from both the protection and efficiencies provided by VeriChip systems. For more information on VeriChip, please visit www.verichipcorp.com.

Posted to Privacy at 08:09 AM | Comments (1)

Is Stewart Simonson qualified to lead our pandemic response?

In the case of a pandemic, the person directly responsible for the response would appear to be Stewart Simonson. He's the Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Health and Human Services.

From his bio:

From 2001-2003, he was the HHS Deputy General Counsel and provided legal advice and counsel to the Secretary on public health preparedness matters. Prior to joining HHS, Simonson served as corporate secretary and counsel for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK).

From 1995-1999, Simonson was Legal Counsel to Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson. In the Governor's Office, Simonson also directed policy development for crime and corrections and coordinated the state's public safety agencies.

Simonson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986 and Juris Doctor degree in 1994. He is a member of the bar in Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

He's obviously qualified if we have an outbreak of litigation. But, other than the supposed coordination of "public safety agencies", he doesn't sound like a medically-focused wonk to me.

More in "Unqualified Crony in Charge of Pandemic Response".

Someone should start taking a look at all the people in important posts and determine whether they're really qualified for the jobs they hold.

Posted to Politics at 05:54 AM | Comments (1)

The Nerd-"Liberal" intersection

Those wacky DUmmies, creating a thread entitled "Your pick of Star Trek characters for POTUS and cabinet?"

Even we non-DUmmies can play the game. And, it's open to all characters from all shows. I'm picking Odo as President, just because I can. Worf - of course - will be Secretary of War. Felix (or whatever the guy's name was) I will appoint as Ambassador to Neptune. Then, just as I wanted to every time I saw him on the screen, I will eject him into space so he can get to work. Man, he was annoying. I'm selecting Linda Park for some job or another, I'll figure out something for her to do. Jeri Ryan and Jolene Blalock will share duties as co-Secretaries of Twinnage. And, I'm selecting B'Elanna Torrez as Secretary... of my Heart.

Enter your choices in the comments.

Posted to WackyHumor at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)

Porn sicko Max Hardcore raided by FBI

Finally! The FBI raided the headquarters of porn producer Max Hardcore earlier today, and I fully welcome this move.

What's that? This has nothing to do with him making crap movies featuring heavily-spraypainted dumbed-down dumb bimbos who wear socks and streetwalker-grade high heel shoes doing things that aren't exactly in my own personal kink inventory? You say it looks like they're trying to get him on featuring underage starlets? Somehow I don't think that's likely considering all the onerous paperwork requirements those who make erotic cinema must endure.

While I don't know the charges, and whatever they are they may turn out to be true, MH isn't exactly a back-alley (so to speak) producer. So, I'm highly skeptical, especially since they involved five titles and one might not think that MH would make the same mistake five or more times.

This is just another example of how the Bush administration is wrong on so many levels.

UPDATE: There's a little more here.

Posted to Privacy at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

Phil Hendrie's blog meets predestined fate

As previously reported, slightly well-known radio personality Phil Hendrie had a blog at georgewbushisgod.com. Checking recently, I see that it's disappeared and been replaced with the NetSol Coming Soon page. I don't know exactly what happened to it, but perhaps he realized that the domain name did not reflect the truth in this or any alternate dimension and pulled it.

As I also noted, someone else registered the very similar name georgebushisgod.com.

Now, I note that the latter name is being auctioned off at tdnam.com, for the amazingly low opening bid of just $500. However, for that same price, you could bid on fifty names like georgebushisanidiot.us. A much better bargain and more reflective of the truth. To give you some perspective, someone wants $1000 for ratemytoilet.com and $8500 for boldcow.com. youisfired.com starts at $5000.

Posted to Celebrities at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)

CDC restricts access to flu data

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has restricted access to flu data.

...Open government advocates are critical of the CDC's "Information Security" manual, the 34-page document that gives officials 19 categories to shield data from public scrutiny without obtaining a "secret" classification.

That runs counter to CDC's mission, says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, which first published the leaked manual on its Web site...

...Upon further questioning, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck cited national security concerns...

I bet I know what you're thinking, and here it is:

One potential concern that the CDC may have about sharing data is how it would affect any partnership it might now have with vaccine manufacturers, said David Webster, president of Webster Consulting Group, a health industry consulting firm based in Pennsylvania. The CDC might be concerned that those manufacturers might not be able to recoup their investment if the information is made widely available, he said.

That's certainly a valid concern, but, like me, there's probably a question or two you might have, such as who's making what and who are they connected to.

If you can find a link to the manual at fas.org, please leave a link in the comments.

Posted to Miscellania at 08:34 AM | Comments (1)

Jim Gilchrist, John Campbell to face in 48th District runoff

The results of the 48th District election are in, and Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist will face off against Bush Republican John Campbell in a December runoff.

Gilchrist got 14%, and Campbell got 46%. Note that "moderate Republican" Marilyn Brewer got 17%, just slightly more than Gilchrist. The latter will probably get more in the runoff, and even if he doesn't win it will send a loud message to the PTB.

Posted to Politics at 06:03 AM | Comments (3)

Put a fork in England, it's done

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British prison officers who wore a St. George's Cross tie-pin have been ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol's racist connotations.

The pins showing the English flag -- which has often raised hackles due to its connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries -- could be "misconstrued," Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said in a section on race in a report on a jail in the northern English city of Wakefield.

The banner of St. George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims, and later became the national flag of England.

A section on race relations in Owers' report said: "We were concerned to see a number of staff wearing a flag of St. George tie-pin.

"While we were told that these had been bought in support of a cancer charity there was clear scope for misinterpretation, and Prison Service Orders made clear that unauthorized badges and pins should not be worn."

As one of her formal recommendations Owers said: "Staff should not wear unauthorized badges or pins..."

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 10:57 PM | Comments (1)

The Bilderbergers don't rule the world

Feel relief, Citizen, as you learn that the Bilderberg group does not rule the world and set the international political agenda. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Viscount Etienne Davignon, corporate director and former European Commissioner, revealed that it's just not so.

Posted to Miscellania at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

Los Angeles Times to get less "liberal"

According the Nikke Finke of the LA Weakly, the Los Angeles Times' phone solicitors are reading the following from a script when they call:

I want you to know that we're bringing in a lot more conservative voices and conservative columnists.

This "frankly shocked" Finke, as one might imagine.

This guy confirmed this when calling in to the LAT's subscription line and posing as a suck... potential subscriber.

Perhaps after this move the LAT could comb through their past issues and print an issue listing all of their previous lies, misleading statements, and things that they've ignored over the years. Of course, that might defoliate the Amazon, so perhaps they could put that online.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)

Crime, illegal immigration, and media bias

There's a transcript of a discussing by Heather MacDonald and others here. From her talk:

[... discussing the Washington Post editorial from August 10th "The Reality of Gangs"...]

Even as the Post called for more social spending, it completely ignored the most salient feature of Mara Salvatrucha, which is the astoundingly high number of illegals within its ranks. The Justice Department estimates that more than 50 percent of all members of Mara Salvatrucha are illegal. I talked to an LAPD Officer who deals with this gang daily, and he puts the figures much higher. I've heard cops tell me they think it's almost 100 percent. I think that's too high, but it's somewhere between there.

Now, there seems to be a taboo on talking about the contribution that illegal aliens make to criminal activity in this country. When I first started writing about this I would ask people in the LAPD, and I felt like I was violating some nicety of social convention. It was something that polite company is not supposed to address...

...In all of the stories that the [L.A.] Times has been running about [the Jose Raul Pena case], they've mentioned only once the fact that Pena was here illegally. The New York Times has written about…the evil LAPD. They haven't deigned to mention Pena's status a single time...

[The Los Angeles Times digs into the events preceding the Temecula town hall meeting and] the L.A. Times concluded, and I quote, "The agents may have scoped out the areas on their own, finding areas where large numbers of undocumented immigrants gather." Now, this to the Times was a scandal. This is the sort of investigative reporting that the Times prides itself on: the fact that immigration agents actually took some initiative to make arrests on their own...

Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:34 PM | Comments (5)

Phil Angelides for Governor, Part 2 (intellectual dishonesty)

Dan Walters offers "Intellectual dishonesty reaches new low in Angelides debt report":

[Phil] Angelides is the state's banker, and one would expect that he would feel at least some compunction about the integrity of official financial reports. But he's also the leading Democratic candidate for governor and has never been shy about using his official position to tout himself or causes to advance his political career, or to undermine rivals. And the new Debt Affordability Report expands on that practice.

Titled "Stop the Borrowing Binge," it's an attack on Republican Gov. Arnold's Schwarzenegger's fiscal policies masquerading as a sober statistical report. "The findings of today's report are clear," Angelides said in an accompanying statement. "Gov. Schwarzenegger's budget plan has put our state in a terrible fiscal bind. California's level of debt is far greater than when he took office 23 months ago and the state is facing deficits as far as the eye can see." And so forth.

But if one sets aside the overheated rhetoric and looks at the report's numbers, the reality is not nearly as condemnatory. They reveal that predecessor Gray Davis ran up $18 billion in debt to cover budget deficits (not counting billions more in back-door financing not carried on the books) and that during the two Schwarzenegger years, it increased by another $8 billion...

Posted to California at 01:44 PM | Comments (2)

New Haven CT to issue IDs for illegals

Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven CT wants to give the illegal immigrants living in his city an ID card of the city's own design:

"Let's be real about why this is happening first of all," said the mayor, who is also a gubernatorial candidate, during a bilingual press conference in City Hall. "The failure of the federal government to recognize and embrace thousands and thousands of hard-working residents, is subjecting those people and their families to abuse and exploitation," he said.

Obviously, we shouldn't "embrace" the 10 million or more people who are here illegally. We should encourage them to go home. Moves like this will just encourage more to come here. And, unfortunately, not all of them will go to New Haven.

The Mayor should be recalled. If he pushes forward with his plan, the state or the federal government should step in and do what's necessary to make sure he doesn't get what he wants.

Unfortunately, it appears that the powers that be, including the local rag are on the wrong side. While their article "City to offer ID for illegal aliens" does have a correct title, they twice refer to an "anti-immigrant group":

"Does anybody in New Haven understand that they are breaking the immigration law?" said Elise Marciano, Danbury chapter president of the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control.

"You are not supposed to aid and abet illegal aliens," Marciano added. "They have no documents. They could give you any name. They could go and get 15 different ID cards with different names. How would you know?"

..."That was a concern, so we consulted the Yale Law School on the legality of doing this," said Kica Matos, executive director of JUNTA for Progressive Action, which hatched the program...

The new program, dubbed Hablamos Espanol, literally, We Speak Spanish, is a four-pronged approach aimed at making City Hall more user-friendly to Spanish speakers.

The ID cards is one aspect, and another is urging local banks to allow immigrants to open accounts without required Social Security numbers.

[...Police Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr. plays the "they need IDs to avoid carrying cash" card...]

...DeStefano has dismissed calls by anti-immigrant groups to crack down on illegals living in New Haven, and on Monday, Ortiz reiterated the administration’s position.

"We are going to lead the discussion and policy-making on how police will enforce immigration, I promise you that," Ortiz said.

...Latino politicians reached later Monday applauded the new bilingual forms, but said far more needs to be done, including hiring more bilingual city workers...

Let's contact CT reps and encourage them to take action. Also, please contact this paper and suggest they stop using "undocumented" and "anti-immigrant": abromage@nhregister.com and jkram@nhregister.com

Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:57 AM | Comments (12)

Gavin Newsom: WiFi access is a "civil rights issue"

Bearing in mind that Gavin Newsom was the "moderate" choice for mayor of San Francisco, let's peer through the viewing window at "S.F. mayor sees wireless service as basic right":

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, on Monday said he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens...

"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said...

But the mayor also singled out the power of Wi-Fi as an alternative network to provide emergency information to all citizens in the event a natural disaster such as an earthquake were to strike the city and knock out other communications.

Thus, wireless access can be seen a basic right that should be available not just to business professionals but also lower-income citizens. "This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else," Newsom said...

Posted to California at 05:25 AM | Comments (1)

Bush pushing for military in case of bird flu

In the case of a bird flu outbreak, Bush wants to break out the military. From yesterday's remarks:

The policy decisions for a President in dealing with an avian flu outbreak are difficult. One example: If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country, and how do you then enforce a quarantine? When -- it's one thing to shut down airplanes; it's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move.

As previously discussed, the Bush administration is pushing to weaken Posse Comitatus and use the military to respond to natural disasters.

It's also a bit ironic for him to be discussing preventing "people from coming in"; perhaps he should try it on the border for a change.

Posted to Politics at 03:18 AM | Comments (0)

OTMs dropped off in San Angelo; Kay Bailey Hutchison responds

"Dumping Ground" is a long article on "Other Than Mexicans", aka OTMs. Since there are no detention spaces to hold them, they're given a notice to appear and dropped off at the bus station. And, needless to say, they're never heard from again. It contains this:

Such a situation has caused grumbling in Washington, particularly among Texas' delegation to the House of Representatives, where 24 of the 32 members - including Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, who also represents San Angelo - signed a letter to President Bush urging action along the Texas-Mexico border.

''The influx of OTMs into our Texas communities is an immediate threat and an embarrassment,'' the letter states.

The growing problem along the border is a top priority among the House's leadership, Conaway said, adding that representatives from across the country are eager to pass legislation before Congress recesses in November.

Likewise, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's office said she supports allowing local police to have the authority to arrest and detain illegal immigrants, rather than keeping that solely in the hands of the federal government.

Hutchison will use San Angelo as a ''glaring example of when government fails its people'' in a meeting next week with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, said Chris Paulitz, a spokesman for the senator.

Such a porous immigration system is dangerous, he said.

''Any of these (disaster) scenarios you can imagine, a terrorist has thought the same thing,'' Paulitz said. ''This is a real threat to our national security.''

Posted to Immigration2005b at 08:26 PM | Comments (1)

Miers is an "inspiring testament to the diversity of the president's cronies"

Ramesh Ponnuru:

It's an inspiring testament to the diversity of the president's cronies. Wearing heels is not an impediment to being a presidential crony in this administration!

A little later, Rich Lowry says:

Just talked to a couple of people in the Bush orbit who was making the case for Miers. Comes down to: Bush has made good judicial picks to this point, so why would he suddenly go south now?; Miers has overseen the selection process that has produced many conservative nominees; she might not have a paper trail on hot-button issues before the court, but she has something more important: Bush's absolute confidence that she is his sort of judge and that she won't “grow” in office; everyone who works with her has the highest regard for her deep principle, and she is a well-grounded individual. The bottom line is "trust us."

Obviously, the idea of a president appointing someone to whom he's very close should worry many people. It does not, of course, worry those who only care about power no matter the cost to the country. Perhaps the Bush family is preparing for future Florida recounts or something.

Posted to Politics at 08:07 PM | Comments (1)

JetBlue, other American airlines outsource maintenance work

Remember the JetBlue flight with the stuck landing gear?

...Since last week's landing, though, we've learned a couple of other things that aren't quite so comforting -- for instance, that this was at least the seventh time that the front wheels on an Airbus A-320 have gotten locked in the wrong position.

More surprising still was the news about JetBlue's long-term maintenance of its aircraft. When the planes are inspected for damage and then reassembled, the work takes place either in Canada or El Salvador.

...When JetBlue first took to the air in 2000, rather than hire its own long-term maintenance department, the company subcontracted that work to Air Canada and the Central America-based TACA. It's certainly cheaper: According to a Wall Street Journal story last January, the Salvadoran mechanics make $300 to $1,000 a month -- far less than their U.S.-based counterparts. Roughly one-third of the Salvadoran mechanics have passed the exam that qualifies them for the Federal Aviation Administration's license, while in the United States, such licenses are required for all mechanics employed directly by the airlines.

But such licensed, in-house mechanics are increasingly the exception at U.S. airlines. About half of the long-term maintenance on the planes of U.S. carriers is outsourced, and much of that work takes place overseas, where FAA inspections are a sometime thing...

He goes on to discuss how such outsourcing is part of a global trend, and a book that discusses the downsides of this type of corporate structure.

For more on the FAA's rules, see this 1997 document:

...But today, a foreign station can get certified even if there is little or no international travel expected in the area and can work on any aircraft for any reason. This means that an aircraft that flies between Washington, D.C. and Chicago can find its way down to Mexico, Brazil, or Costa Rica to receive regularly scheduled maintenance and overhaul work. The results of this regulatory change are predictable - since 1988 the number of foreign stations has increased 150 percent as these facilities compete for lucrative U.S. repair work.

The problem is that the FAA does not require these foreign stations to meet the same safety standards that domestic stations must follow. For example, while U.S. mechanics must undergo drug and alcohol testing, no such comparable requirement exists in foreign countries in which U.S. certified stations do business. In addition, at a domestic station, supervisory and inspection personnel must be certified by the FAA, yet a foreign station can operate without a single certified mechanic. These double-standards are contrary to sound aviation safety policy.

Posted to Miscellania at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

ICE employees: Julie Myers is "unqualified"

From this:

President Bush's nominee to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drawn the ire of several ICE supervisors and agents who say she is "unqualified" because she has never held a law-enforcement management position.

The nomination of Julie L. Myers "just doesn't pass the smell test and is another indication that this administration created the Department of Homeland Security as window dressing and does not care whether ICE is successful," said Matthew Issman, national legislative vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA).

"What we need is a strong, law-enforcement leader, not another inexperienced, well-connected lawyer with friends in the White House."

...[Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-OH] later met with Mrs. Myers and is expected to support the nomination.

But several ICE supervisors and agents complained last week that the agency has struggled in its attempt to establish a specific mission strategy, despite the expenditure of billions of dollars in tax money and said a strong leader is vital for improvement.

They also criticized what they called poor administrative systems, ongoing budgetary concerns, a hiring freeze, morale problems and a lack of cohesion and identity.

Mr. Issman has been at the forefront of a movement within ICE to point out to members of Congress what supervisors and field agents say are major "systemic issues and concerns."

"With a lightweight like Myers, we will just continue to lose more ground and will be relegated to becoming an also-ran," Mr. Issman said...

Her nomination is still pending.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

Uncle Walty to America: you're dumb

America's beloved former CBS anchorman, Walter Cronkite, recently had strong words for us, his former charges. According to the endearing and legendary sesquicentennarian:

"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week.

In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."

"If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."

In a way he's right. I note, for instance, that CBS' Nightly News frequently ends with a heart-warming tale about animals and such. Perhaps they should replace that with a two-minute reply from an outside source describing all the lies and misleading statements CBS promulgated in the preceding 28 minutes.

Posted to Miscellania at 12:00 PM | Comments (2)

"Spain heightens fence at African enclave"

Spain has two enclaves in Morocco: Melilla and Ceuta. That country claims they're Moroccan property, and Spain also has to contend with refugees trying to use the outposts to get onto European soil. So, they've built a 10' high double-fence around Melilla, including a wide array of sensors and even guards using rubber bullets.

Now:

Spanish authorities are rushing to double the height of a fence surrounding the north African enclave of Melilla after a dozen more immigrants were injured in a battle with police as they tried to find a way on to European soil.

The injuries followed the deaths of at least three immigrants over the past three weeks during mass attempts to storm the frontier that have ended in clashes with both Spanish police and their Moroccan counterparts on the other side of Melilla's border. Immigrants are using ladders and what one official called "military tactics" in their increasingly desperate attempts to get through the barrier erected around what is, in effect, a land frontier between the European Union and Africa.

UPDATE: See "Hundreds of immigrants tear through border fence" and "Spain asks EU for strict policy against illegal immigration".

Posted to Immigration_euro at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

"Harry Reid Tied to Chinagate Figure"

From this:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid accepted donations from key Clinton Chinagate fundraiser John Huang - and later pushed for Senate confirmation of the judge who let Huang off with a slap on the wrist.

News of Reid's Chinagate donations resurfaced this week in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which detailed the top Democrat's relationship with a Nevada church whose pastor has been indicted for misusing federal grants obtained by the powerful Senate Democrat.

A federal grant of $423,000 was arranged by Reid for the Alliance Collegiums Association of Nevada, which was run by the Rev. Willie Davis, the longtime pastor of Second Baptist Church...

[...much damning info deleted...]

But Sen. Reid went to bat for Huang's judge, after being asked to reach out to other Mormon Senators by Mrs. Paez, a fellow Mormon.

"That's what I did," Reid told the New York Times.

The argument appears to have worked with Sen. Orrin Hatch, who told Utah's Deseret News, "I cannot accept, in the absence of any supporting evidence, that two branches of the government engaged in a conspiracy" to give Huang a light sentence...

Posted to Politics at 05:16 AM | Comments (0)

Why lefties don't like Pope Ratzinger

The Stasi spied on Joseph Ratzinger during the Cold War:

targeting him as one of the Vatican's fiercest opponents of communism, according to a report published on Sunday.

From April 1974 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the feared Ministry for State Security kept close tabs on the then theology professor Joseph Ratzinger, according to documents from the so-called Stasi archives printed in the weekly Bild am Sonntag.

"Ratzinger is seen at the Vatican as one of the staunchest opponents of communism," a Stasi spy noted in his file after the late John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981.

The report said the Stasi also attempted in vain to unearth damaging documents from Ratzinger's involvement in the Hitler Youth under the Third Reich.

An "unofficial collaborator" for the regime using the alias "Birke" (birch) reported on lectures Ratzinger gave at a seminary in the eastern city of Erfurt and recognised his importance to the Roman Catholic Church...

Stasi, "liberals", what's the difference you say.

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

20% of California high school seniors can't pass junior high test

I wonder if the state of California could file a class action lawsuit against the federal government for their refusal to enforce our immigration laws, leading to the situation described in "20% of Seniors Flunk High School Graduation Exam".

Twenty percent of CA's HS seniors - about 100,000 people - have failed our graduation exam. Many of those seniors are illegal aliens, and their presence in the schools also reduces the resources available to the Americans who are flunking the exam.

And, that exam "is geared to an eighth-grade level in math and to ninth- and 10th-grade levels in English."

In other words, it's a junior high school or freshman/sophomore in high school level test, administered to highschool seniors, and one-fifth of them can't pass it.

But the report by the Virginia-based Human Resources Research Organization showed that tens of thousands of students, particularly those in special education and others who speak English as a second language, may fail the test by the end of their senior year despite remedial classes, after-school tutoring and other academic help...

... Among its findings: 63% of African Americans and 68% of Latinos in the class of 2006 have passed both parts of the exam.

By comparison, 89% of Asians and 90% of whites have passed. The report recommended that the state keep the exam but consider several alternatives for students who can't pass.

"Clearly, we need to have some options for these students," said Lauress L. Wise, the firm's president, in a telephone interview with reporters.

The state, for example, could allow seniors to submit portfolios of work that demonstrate mastery of English and math, the report's authors suggested.

Perhaps a portfolio of their basket-weaving work.

California's superintendent of public instruction, Jack O'Connell doesn't want to diminish the worth of a HS diploma but taking those and other steps; I thought he was on the other side, so perhaps, as unlikely as it sounds, there's something the LAT isn't telling us.

The details of the exam get even worse:

Students get several opportunities to pass the exam in high school, and they have to correctly answer only a little more than half of the questions to succeed.

As you might expect, the socialists in Sacramento have jumped into the breach, passing legislation that would allow the portfolio of work to be used in place of the exam. Arnold has not announced if he intends to veto it, but he should.

And, since many of those who can't pass the exam are illegal aliens, and since those illegal aliens also have an impact on class sizes and other resources, he should do whatever he has to to make sure that the federal government does their job regarding illegal immigration.

Posted to California at 10:33 PM | Comments (2)

Tuesday is Bring Your Guns To Work Day

Bring Your Guns To Work Day is this Tuesday. All Americans are encouraged to bring their guns, ammo, munitions, and other forms of weapons to their workplace and show them off. Floridians, unfortunately, will have to show their guns to their co-workers in the parking lot, as they law allowing this in that state hasn't been passed yet.

(I had the idea of creating a site or video or something about this Day over a decade ago. I see now that there are about 500 sites mentioning my play on words. However, a review of Usenet shows no such entries before 2004, leading me to believe that, yes, I did think this up before anyone else.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)

Cynthia Tucker's illegal immigration strawman; a challenge

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist offers "Don't blame illegals; blast their bosses", which shall be mini-fisked as follows:

In every time, and in every place, there are demagogues who ride to power by whipping up the fears and resentments of an anxious populace.

Believe or don't, she's referring to Tom Tancredo. She is not referring to people like Gil Cedillo (see, for instance, "Gil Cedillo: using a horrible crime for political purposes" or "Pro-illegal immigration advocates seemingly have no shame"). Does she even know that name? Is she even aware of the constant demagoguery of those who support illegal immigration, even in her own state? And, if she is aware or were made aware, would she have the guts to call them on it? I highly doubt it.

Our current Joseph McCarthys are the contentious cranks and nativists who want to drive every illegal immigrant - especially Mexicans, Hondurans and Guatemalans - out of the country.

If it sounds like she's playing the race card, that's because she is. Just one small problem: the vast majority of illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Central America. And, her "argument" is a variation on the standard "you can't deport all illegals so why bother" false choice. And, of course, there's that little matter of referring to those who want to enforce our laws as "cranks and nativists".

...But the demagogues who whip up the anti-immigrant frenzy rarely say a word about companies that hire illegally.

That's absolute BS. The problem, as Tucker points out, is that those companies have money and a corrupting influence. They are able to buy what they want, and what they want is opposed by the great majority of Americans who rightly perceive it as against America's best interests.

So, why is Cynthia Tucker effectively on their side by writing smear articles like this?

Perhaps instead of constructing the nativist strawman, she might consider doing something good and fighting against those corrupt businesses, corrupt politicians, and racial demagogues. After all, she seems to be somewhat against illegal immigration, right?

I look forward to her having the guts to take on the real enemies rather than strawmen. Let's keep a close eye on the AJC and eagerly await their exposes on the Open Borders Lobby. I'm sure such articles will be forthcoming any day now.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:57 PM | Comments (3)

Reuters on Gilchrist; Campbell is actually pro-illegal immigration; Hoffenblum changes tone

The Reuters article "Border activist a wild card in Calif. election" discusses the race in California's 48th District. Said "wild card" is Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist, who's facing off against "moderate Republican" and state Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer and the front-runner, former Republican state Sen. John Campbell. The dynamics of this race were previously discussed here.

As for the article itself, it says:

Campbell won the endorsement of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and has also taken a strong stance against illegal immigration -- coming out against Bush's controversial "guest worker" program.

Unfortunately, Reuters needs to use Lexis-Nexis a bit more strenuously. Two older OC Register article excerpted here have Campbell coming out in favor of illegal immigration, including this from 2000:

Campbell favors school vouchers, but only in poor areas. He opposes abortion rights, but is not willing to create a law to ban them. And he says illegal immigrants should be given the same benefits as everyone else, since the federal government has not controlled the border to prevent the immigrants from coming in.

I note also that Republican political strategist Allan Hoffenblum seems to have moderated his Bushian tone. Back in November, speaking of Political Human Sacrifice, he said this:

"Immigration is a very emotional issue, and there is a group of voters who have an intense, intense dislike for illegal immigrants".

However, the current article has him changing that slightly:

"Gilchrist has the most emotional issue. A lot of people hate illegal immigration."

I never said he was dumb, just very wrong.

Note also that the Reuters article linked above is the corrected version, the change was minor and is explained here.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:41 AM | Comments (1)

Elliot Spagat of AP offers biased article on border watchers

Here's the second paragraph of the AP article "Civilian patrols branch out, though poll finds opposition" from Elliot Spagat:

Many of the hundreds who make up the self-appointed civilian patrols monitoring the border to deter smuggling of people and drugs are unemployed or underemployed ex-military men who have long resented Mexicans who come to the United States illegally and, in their view, compete for jobs, crowd hospitals and schools and threaten English as the nation's dominant language.

Let's analyze that to the extent that our patience will allow. "Hundreds" implies at least two hundred, right? What subset of two hundred people would you consider "many"? Ten? No, that won't do. "Many" would have to be at the very least thirty or fourty. Did Spagat interview that many people and can he say they all share that profile?

And, is Spagat sure that the "resentment" is directed at the illegal aliens themselves? Even if some is directed at them, isn't most of it directed at those leaders who enable massive illegal immigration?

And, is it only "in their view" that those illegal aliens do the things specified, or aren't those facts?

The AP does mention some of the harrasment those on the other side inflicted on the border watchers, but I'm still waiting for anyone in the MSM to do a similar piece on the pro-Mexico, open borders types. It doesn't have to be a hit piece at all. Just something telling the truth would be very damaging to those who oppose the MMP and similar groups.

If the AP doesn't do that, shouldn't we just assume that they're completely biased? Let's send an email to feedback *at* ap.org and encourage them to provide their readers with the whole truth.

Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

Arianna Huffington and Baby Blumenthal

Did you think the low-point of Huffington Post came when Randall Robinson uttered these memorable words?

It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive.

Well, you're only part right. While it's extremely difficult to find an actual low point of the sexy Greek goddess' site, a contender must be Max Blumenthal, the son of Sid Blumenthal.

There's even a direct connection between Max and Randy. Shortly after the cannibalism charge, Sid Jr. offered "The Right Plays the Race-Card, Randall Robinson Unwittingly Indulges Them". Max stepped in as a bit of a White Savior, trying to offer Randy a lesson.

Obviously, almost everyone didn't believe Robinson's tasty charge; it didn't confirm our hidden suspicions about "those people." It simply provided yet another chance to laugh at Arianna and her crew.

Continuing his winning streak, Max now offers us "Bill Bennett, White Savior". He educates us about "closet racists" and "their codes", and diagnoses Bennett as being a "White Savior". Has the HuffPost no shame, have they no shame?

From young Max's bio:

Max Blumenthal is a Nation Institute Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow whose work regularly appears in the Nation. He has also written for The American Prospect, Salon.com, and the Washington Monthly. He received the Online Journalism Award for best independent feature in 2003 from the Online Journalism Association and the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. He is a Research Fellow at Media Matters for America.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:43 PM | Comments (1)

Killers target "immigrants", guess what happens next

Illegal aliens in Georgia were the targets of a burglary spree, including five murders: "Police: Killers target immigrants". The killers reportedly spoke English, although if there is any clue to their race that hasn't been provided.

Let's examine this paragraph and use that as a clue to what might happen next:

Colquitt County Sheriff Al Whittington stressed that the attacks didn't appear to be hate crimes. Many immigrants are undocumented and therefore can't open bank accounts, which means they tend to carry a lot of cash or keep it in their homes.

We do need to ask whether this was a "hate crime" but, since there appears to be money involved and since it was presumably taken that would tend to cast a great deal of doubt on that. Note also on the right side of the page that CNN has helpfully provided a list of email alerts, including one for "Hate Crimes".

Despite the obvious motives, no doubt rumors will spread, perhaps with the assistance of "human rights" and "immigrant rights" groups in the area.

And, no doubt someone will step up with a "solution" to this "problem": allow those illegal aliens to open bank accounts. In fact, Wells Fargo says it started accepted Mexico's Cracker Jack ID card because they were asked to do so after similar crimes in Texas; see "New ID Cards Help Immigrants Keep Their Money Safe" for a similar example.

See also "Gil Cedillo: using a horrible crime for political purposes".

Posted to Immigration2005b at 04:42 PM | Comments (1)

Did BushCo test bioweapon (Tularemia) on peace protesters on Sept. 24?

DHS sensors have detected the presence of airborne Tularemia in Washington on September 24 and 25, the dates of the big peace protest.

Tularemia is a disease normally spread by people handling dead rabbits and other rodents or by ticks bites, and about 200 people catch it each year. It appears to be treatable with antibiotics, and we're currently in tail end of the incubation period, which could extend up to the 9th of this month.

The WaPo's "Biohazard Sensors Triggered: Mall Germ Levels Likely Not a Threat" has more:

Health authorities in the Washington area were notified yesterday that the bacteria were found in and near the area between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, where crowds gathered Saturday for an antiwar rally and a book festival...

Remember that last bit, as it will become important below...

"We pretty much feel there is no public health threat here," said Von Roebuck, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that there have been no reports of tularemia, the disease that is caused by the bacteria. "We just wanted to alert the medical community to watch out for cases."

The "the working hypothesis": something or other got "stirred up".

But [D.C. Public Health Director Gregg A. Pane] said it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the Mall was packed with people. "Why that day? That's what is not explained," Pane said. "It was just this 24-hour period and none since."

It's not that puzzling to those who know where to look. Remember that book festival mentioned above? It was promoted by First Lady Laura Bush, and it featured several prominent left-wing authors.

However, the First Lady did not appear at the event she promoted.

And, as previously discussed, other officials - including Bush, Cheney, and others - were out of town that day.

While the link before last points out that there were false positives before, this current outbreak could be an attempt to take advantage of those past occurences.

As kestrel, who claims to be a DVM, says:

I am sticking my neck out on this to say, IMHO, this administration tried to kill protestors. I refuse to apologize to anyone for my stand. I refuse to back down. I know my germs.

Moreover, our first victim of the attack has been located: "Anyone else sick a week after the protests?" More in "Did the Miltary Use DC Protest to Test Bio-weaponTularemia?", "Rare Germ Found in D.C., but No Terror Fears", and this JAMA backgrounder,

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

I like the Washington Times, but...

As for that Reverend Moon fella, well:

Challenging U.S. leaders to build a 51-mile "peace" bridge and tunnel from Alaska to Russia, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon rallied hundreds of Seattle supporters last night in an effort to bolster a religious movement best known for mass weddings.

Moon delivered a rambling, 45-minute sermon at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center that heavily criticized the United Nations and called for the end of war and the reconciliation of religious differences.

Moon offered no specifics on how a combination bridge and tunnel could be built or funded...

Posted to Miscellania at 07:58 AM | Comments (4)

Terorists making fun of Dear Leader!

Few people prank whole countries, especially those with nuclear capabilities. However, I believe that someone using the name "J. Nelson Kwango" and claiming to be from the country of Cameroon has pulled a prank on our comrades and friends from North Korea. From the message boards of their Korean Friendship Association site (yes, that's really North Korea's site), comes this:

Subject: Terorists makng fun of DPRK and Dear Leader!

Comrades!
I am terrored! A film has just arrived on the markets of Cameroon, this film the American Police Team [he means Team America - World Police (Special Collector's Widescreen Edition) -- LW] or some name that is similar. My nephew, purchased this and asked me to watch because he said is had something to do with DPRK. The shock I see! The general, beloved general, Kim Jong Il is a puppet character in this film and speaking the most offending things! He swears in English, kills his interpreter, and turns into a small insect at the end. They make the Dear Leader to be evil man, and lonely man. They find risible the undying love of the Korean people? They think the leadership of DPRK and the revolution is a joke? Forgive me for saying but makers of this film are bastard people! I denounce them and curse them! Bastard people!

Can we not complain to someone about such slander? Why has not the KCNA denounced this piece of capitalist propaganda? To think that they make light of the general and debase his greatness!

Angered

J Nelson

No one appears to catch on, but near the end the real commies step in and shut down the thread. Don't want to give the film undue publicity and all.

Posted to WackyHumor at 04:18 AM | Comments (0)

This site supports Primate Rights

I would like to affirm this site's Commitment to Primate Rights. I have not only joined PETA, I am also an honorary member of the Orangutan Movement.

As I did before, I welcome you to come to California! However, I would also like to point out that our weather here is not like a jungle:

The first instance [of tool use by our large cousins] was observed last October when a female gorilla (nicknamed Leah by scientists) attempted to wade through a pool of water created by elephants, but found herself waist deep after only a few steps. Climbing out of the pool, she retrieved a branch from a dead tree and used the stick to test the depth of the water.

In November, a second female gorilla (named Efi) used a detached tree trunk to support herself with one hand while digging for herbs with the other hand. She also used the tree trunk as a bridge to cross a muddy patch of ground...

You embak'was (yes, I do know a few words of your language, thank you) are certainly doing quite well for yourself! However, I really don't think the weather and the natural environment here would be much to your liking. I'm just thinking of you, that's all.

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:29 AM | Comments (0)

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, Iraq, terrorism, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

Main

Atom feed · RSS 2.0 feed · RSS 0.91 feed · WML

Immigration 2008a · Immigration 2007b · Immigration 2007a · Immigration · Immigration (6/05 to 12/05) · Immigration (1/05 to 6/05) · Immigration (8/04 to 12/04) · Immigration (before 8/04) · Immigration & Terrorism · Immigration & Driver's Licenses · Immigration & Consuls · Immigration & Media Bias · Immigration & Europe · North American Union

Blogging Across America

MultiCulti Madness · General Politics · Privacy · Miscellaneous · The "Peace" Movement

Los Angeles · California · Outdoors and sports · Celebrities · Wackiness · Inside Blogging

Iraq · Beltway Sniper · Terrorism & Extremism · The Saudis · Warblogging · War On Drugs

• 2008: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 
• 2007: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 
• 2006: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 
• 2005: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 
• 2004: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 
• 2003: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 
• 2002: 9  10  11  12 

All Posts(links to each post by title)

• Washington Post repeats Boston Globe smear on Minuteman Project
• Newest, lowest new low from Huffington Post?
• TV stations misleading about assault at anti-Arnold rally?
• Arizona Daily Star supports amnesty for illegal aliens
• Another dirty trick by the anti-Proposition 77 forces
• Would you sneak into the White Sands Missile Range?
• The Girls of CodePink
• California Border Patrol rally draws crowd, questionable editing
• Kobach gets support in fight for Citizens Rights
• Senate Selling American Jobs to Close Federal Budget Deficit
• Virginia governor candidate Tim Kaine spins, misses on pro-illegal immigration stance
• "LA County needs to spend $50 billion on upgrades, engineers say"
• Al Gore has a blog
• Rat lovers unite!
• True face of Democratic Party: union thugs attack woman at anti-Arnold rally
• Democrats fail to capitalize on massive Republican incompetence
• Gray Davis now "resource" at UCLA
• Kennedy-McCain gets Mexican government stamp of approval
• Backstage at the Huffington Post
• "Congressional delegation wants action on immigration policies"

My trip to Alpine County What not to do, again (September 1-2, 2002)

Boston Market Cornbread Temperatures Please help contribute to this important study (August 28, 2002)

Did The Gap Put Celebrities at Risk? An Open Web Letter to The Gap (May 20, 2002)

Humphreys Peak Arizona's highest point (May 19, 2001)

Go Heavy, Go Slow, Get Lost Bay Area highpoints (December 14, 2000)

Hubris in New England The highpoints of RI, CT, and MA (October 8, 2000)

Let's go to Utah Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon (August 14, 2000)

Your host, climbing Monkey Face (5.14d)

Your host's arm (circled)

Your host's hopelessly outdated conditioning progress

BigMediaBlog.com : "Comments for sites that don't have comments."

BoreAmerica.com: monitoring Air America Radio

tolstoy.com : my business site

Drudge
The John and Ken Show (KFI-Los Angeles)
The Stein Report
Sam Zamarripa
RedState
Res Ipsa Loquitur
PCWatch
Natalie Merchant
Samizdata