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Western Governors Association wants "guest" worker program
From this:The Western Governors Association on Tuesday called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform including a temporary guest worker program.UPDATE: As you might expect, it's even worse than the blurb suggests. Utah's "Republican" governor Jon Huntsman is working with Arizona's Janet Napolitano on the "guest" worker scheme and immigration "reform" in general, and they have demands.
The group that represents 18 western states passed the policy resolution unanimously while meeting at the National Governors Association annual conference...
For instance, they want to avoid creating incentives to emigrate here illegally by... making legal immigration easier. Until such time as we allow a billion or so people to move here, that's not going to work.
They don't want "amnesty", but, then again, all of those who want amnesty claim they don't want what they want. Instead, they want to fine illegal aliens before giving them amnesty. Orwell would be proud.
And, it appears to have been a setup:
Immigration was among the topics President Bush touched on during a Monday morning meeting with governors - possibly in anticipation of today's policy proposal, Huntsman said.I don't know about Napolitano, but I have no qualms about calling Utah's governor un-American:
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Mexico, and illegal immigration
Utah's problem with "American" politicians
Posted to Immigration at 01:26 PM | Comments (2)
Dianne Feinstein supports taking tuition discounts from Americans
Buried in this 2/24 article is this:[Senator Dianne Feinstein] said she would co-sponsor a bill that would offer college grants to the undocumented youths who arrived in the United States before age 16 and have been here at least five years.As pointed out before, every discount given to an illegal alien means one less for an American.
Therefore, Senator Dianne Feinstein wants to take discounted college educations away from American citizens and give them to citizens of other countries who are here illegally.
On an ironic note came this Feb. 9 press release from the Senator:
"...Cuts to federal student loan programs--$12.7 billion over the next five years--will push college out of reach for many middle and low income families. In California, the [budget reconciliation bill] will cost the University of California system more than $10 million over the next three years, and make college less affordable for thousands of California's college students. And graduates will face student loan payments with rates over 7% as they try to get on their feet.Perhaps she's just confused over the definition of "citizen". Write her here and suggest a good dictionary.
The bottom line is that this irresponsible spending-cut bill represents relief for the wealthy in exchange for greater burdens on our nation's poorest and most vulnerable citizens."
Posted to Immigration at 10:16 AM | Comments (6)
How to unblock censored BoingBoing access
Apparently various countries block access to BoingBoing. There are ways to get around the censorship, but the problem is they're listed at BB itself! So, those who are censored might not be able to read it.Thankfully, Insty has stepped into the breach.
In addition, here are some tips if you're using ZimboSSL. Use the following initialization string:
tunnel --site boingboing.net --block "xeni jardin"If you're using ObmizSSL, here's the command to use:
tunnel --site boingboing.net --filter-out "xeni"
If you're using google as a proxy, just add -"yellow journalism" to the query string.
HTH
Posted to Bloggage at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)
Are illegal aliens a security threat?
One of the cherished talking points of supporters of illegal immigration is that illegal aliens who come here for economic reasons don't post a terror-related threat to the U.S. That's usually applied to Hispanic illegal aliens.
And, as the latest example shows, it's frequently used by racial advocates: someone named Marisa Trevino offers "Border control aims at wrong bad guys".
Unfortunately, that's completely wrong. While some reasons why are listed in "Exempt Spanish-speaking from Border Security, Immigration Laws?", there are - believe it or not - a few more.
All those illegal aliens help build up a smuggling infrastructure that could be used - and might already have been used - by terrorists. If there were fewer illegal aliens coming over, those who tried to do so would stick out like sore thumbs rather than being able to disappear in the crowd.
And, it's extraordinarily dangerous and foolish for a country to allow millions of people who have no allegiance to that country to settle within its borders. As pointed out before, if we're (almost) unable to completely expel those who've come here illegally, then we have in effect been invaded and settled.
It gives foreign powers political power inside our country, and one never knows if some of those illegal aliens would decide to rebel or cause similar problems. There have been immigrant riots in the U.S. and other countries. See France for an example. Could some variant of that happen here? Perhaps. What if we tried to expel millions of illegal aliens. Would they resist? Are we avoiding expeling them out of fear of what they would do? If so, then once again: we've been invaded and settled.
On a side note, the writer of the USA Today screed is identified only as a "freelance writer". However, there's someone who has the same name and looks remarkably like her working as the editor of "Ideas", the magazine of the "International Newspaper Marketing Association".
Posted to Immigration_terror at 07:00 AM | Comments (17)
Call your senators and stop Specter's massive amnesty scheme
More information on Senator Arlen Specter's massive illegal alien amnesty - and contact information for your Senators - is here. Additional background here.
Please take a moment and express your opinion on this anti-American bill.
Posted to Immigration at 04:57 AM | Comments (0)
Churchmen, coyotes, and HR 4437
The WashTimes offers "Churchmen and coyotes":Few pieces of immigration legislation have been more egregiously distorted than the alien smuggling provisions that were included in H.R. 4437, the immigration reform bill passed by the House of Representatives in September thanks in large part to the diligent efforts of Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican...The editorial is paired with the article "Stop alien smuggling" by the United States attorney for the district of New Mexico.
...This section of H.R. 4437 is aimed squarely at criminals who attempt to smuggle people into the country for profit while leaving them to die in the desert or suffocate in the back of a truck...
...But unfortunately that is not the case. Church organizations (with the assistance of some know-nothing libertarians who liken H.R.4437's provisions on alien smuggling to the pre-Civil War Fugitive Slave Act) continue to make the unfounded charges the legislation is directed at providers of humanitarian assistance. But, like current law, the bill's provisions apply only to people who act recklessly or knowingly; if someone is not engaged in profit-making activity or thwarting law-enforcement efforts to prevent alien smuggling, Mr. Iglesias points out, they have nothing to worry about under this legislation: The federal government has more important things to do than to waste time prosecuting someone who simply provides basic necessities to an immigrant...
Posted to Immigration at 02:53 AM | Comments (2)
Dubai: DPW takes on Lou Dobbs; Coast Guard had objections
The Coast Guard - at least initially - had questions on the deal (nofollowpolicy). The USCG says that it had all its questions answered by various intelligence agencies.
That causes Bush cheerleader Insty to once again ask what the problem could be. As does co-idiot Kevin Drum.
And:
Lou Dobbs reported today that "Dubai Ports World" officials have tried to silence him and get CNN to suppress his reports... Mark Dennis, spokesman for Dubai Ports World: "CNN won't shut up Lou Dobbs." ...They are refusing to give any more interviews to CNN or allow them to video tape their operations overseas. To CNN's credit they have refused to comply with their demands.
Posted to Terrorism at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)
City of Orange "defends" turning illegal aliens over to Border Patrol
The City of Orange in Orange County arrested eight day laborers on Friday and turned them over to the Border Patrol. They admitted to being here illegally.
Now, we're supposed to believe that this decision is something that has to be defended. The AP offers that view in "Orange city officials defend turning over arrested day laborers to immigration authorities":
City officials are defending the decision to turn eight arrested day laborers over to immigration authorities.
In other news, Newport Beach is defending their decision to shut down a polluting lead smelter in their city. And, Huntington Beach is defending their decision to enforce zoning laws. Going even further, Seal Beach is also considering defending their decision to have a police force at all.
Posted to Immigration at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)
Philadelphia Inquirer supports illegal immigration, "guest" worker schemes
That paper offers the editorial "Crossing the Borders Immigration dilemma: Finding middle ground". It's a long editorial and it's chock full o' canards. This bit tells you all you need to know:
President Bush, who was governor of Texas, knows quite a bit about immigration from Mexico. His instincts are pragmatic.
That makes sense, just as long as your dictionary defines "pragmatic" as "completely corrupt; wants to flood the U.S. with cheap labor."
Previously, from a columnist for the same paper came: "Send illegals home - pronto!"
Posted to Immigration at 06:35 AM | Comments (3)
Mexican consulate coming to Little Rock
Mexico has more consulates in the U.S. than any other country, and since exporting illegal aliens to the U.S. is a growing business they keep building more. The latest will be coming to Little Rock, Arkansas. Jake Beckwith of the Texarkana Gazette offers fawning coverage and transcribes some of the remarks of the Dallas consul.Previous examples of puff pieces about Mexican consuls visiting small towns were featured here.
It's at least a little odd that I haven't seen any articles discussing such visits have featured reporters doing real reporting rather than acting as transcriptionists. Do they somehow think these consuls are paying friendly visits? Are they completely ignorant of the threat posed by a neighboring country sending us millions of their people? Or, is there something else involved?
Perhaps they're just part of the local power structure:
Texarkana, Ark., Mayor Horace Shipp opened the press conference by welcoming Zepeda to the city.Previously:
"The consul general is a very important part of our nation in that it is the official headquarters for representation of Mexico. It plays an important role in matters mutual to the two countries," he said.
New Americans welcomed to Iowa, Arkansas
"Texas has been conquered by Hispanics"
"[AR Gov.] Huckabee plan would give aid to illegal aliens"
Posted to Immigration at 03:18 AM | Comments (4)
First 5 California: bring back integrity!
From this:Republican activists on Saturday increased their pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace movie director Rob Reiner as head of California's First 5 Commission, saying Reiner's decision to take a leave from his state post wasn't enough.Previously: "Rob Reiner denies wrongdoing"
Reiner on Friday took a leave of absence from the chairman's job until after the June 6 election in hopes of defusing a growing controversy about the state commission's $23 million ad campaign for preschool.
The ad campaign, first reported in The Bee in December, generated an outcry that the commission was using tax dollars to benefit the campaign for Proposition 82, the universal preschool initiative Reiner put on the June ballot.
Tony Strickland, a GOP candidate for state controller, said Saturday that the governor needed to replace Reiner with a chairman who could "bring back integrity" to the First 5 Commission.
"Bottom line, I believe they used $23 million worth of our tax dollars to fund their campaign," he said. "I don't think this should go away."
Posted to California at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
Albany Democrat-Herald (Oregon) supports open borders. Literally.
The editorial "Consider an open border with Mexico" from Oregon's Albany Democrat-Herald has to be read to be believed. They are literally supporting an open border with Mexico:
...We have the North American Free Trade Agreement, which links the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada. But this arrangement doesn't seem to extend to the movement of people... If it did, there would be no such person as an illegal alien from Mexico — or Canada — in the United States. Instead, citizens of each would be free to move from any one of the three countries to one of the others. They could live where they wanted and work wherever they were qualified to work, or where their labor was wanted and needed...
This is obviously an anti-American and an un-American concept, and if you're in their readership area I urge you to boycott them and encourage everyone you know to do the same.
The Democrat-Herald is owned by Lee Enterprises, which publishes 58 newspapers across the U.S. Consider boycotting those as well, and if you're in the mood let their CEO Mary E. Junck know what you're doing: (563) 383-2100.
In addition to many smaller papers, their major publications are:
- Arizona Daily Star
- North County Times
- The Times of NW Indiana
- St. Louis Post Dispatch
- Lincoln Journal Star
- Wisconsin State Journal / The Capital Times
Note that the idea of creating a "North American community" is one openly supported by the CFR and other anti-American groups. Perhaps this editorial is just a planted trial balloon intended to test popular opinion about the plan.
Posted to NAU at 08:51 PM | Comments (1)
Casa of Maryland helps illegal aliens get driver's licenses
As previously discussed, Casa of Maryland is a state-funded group that not only supports illegal immigration, but they're threatening to picket the jobs of Minuteman Project members and even the schools attended by their children.The article "Maryland group helps immigrants get driver's licenses" may even describe illegal behavior on their part, but whether it actually occured as described and whether this behavior is in fact illegal is not known at this time. Hopefully someone will look into this:
At 5 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, dozens of Spanish-speaking immigrants gather inside the cafeteria of St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Riverdale, Md., to learn if someone who is in the United States illegally can get a driver's license.
The event has been organized by CASA de Maryland, a Silver Spring-based organization that deals with issues related to undocumented workers.
As parishioners from the 4 p.m. mass stream into the packed room, Kim Propeack, director of community organizing at CASA de Maryland, takes the floor. "Every year in Annapolis they introduce legislation against undocumented immigrants," she says. "We have beaten those attempts every year, so far."
Ms. Propeack hands the floor over to Francisco Cartagena, a CASA organizer who teaches audiences across Maryland how to navigate the treacherous seas of the Motor Vehicle Administration.
Mr. Cartagena explains the importance of the REAL ID Act approved by Congress in May. Murmurs and sidebar conversations can be heard as more people trickle in.
"In March 2003 some restrictions were applied to driver's licenses," Mr. Cartagena says. "Since May 10 of last year they have added other restrictions. Many people did not realize that it was necessary to have legal migration status to get a license." The room goes quiet.
He explains that it is now impossible to get a license in Virginia and the District of Columbia without full documentation. He says that in Maryland there is still a window of opportunity.
"The REAL ID Act is not currently approved in Maryland. We have three years," he says.
The simplest and yet the most pressing obstacle undocumented immigrants face is stating their address. Mr. Cartagena makes it clear that it is not uncommon for people to be unaware of where they live.
"You need to know your address by heart," he says. "People fail when they are asked to give an address. When they ask, 'Where do you live?' it is as if they have thrown cold water on them." He patiently explains that a complete address must include the city, state and ZIP code.
In lieu of the most common documents that prove identity, a social security or a green card, Mr. Cartagena suggests to the audience that they get a baptism certificate from their country of origin, or even a high school transcript, anything that has their date of birth.
Ms. Propeack interjects to warn about fraudulent international licenses sold for hundreds of dollars that are not valid proofs of identity for the MVA.
Mr. Cartagena resumes. "Our naïveté is such that we think we can take a statement from a foreign bank to the MVA," he says. "Make sure that you get a statement from a U.S. bank."
"Many people rent a basement or a room without a written contract. Go to Office Depot or Staples, get a rental contract form and fill it. This document sticks to the law in Maryland. But if you write $200, they will ask you, 'Where are the $200 homes?'"
At 6:30 p.m. the meeting breaks up. Ms. Propeack and a CASA volunteer are surrounded by people and begin to field questions. Half an hour later they must leave the place to make room for a prayer meeting.
According to Mr. Cartagena, over the past two years CASA has educated about 20,000 people on getting a license. Of these, 3,000 have successfully gotten licenses. He says this was not one of CASA's main goals. Their aim was primarily to protect day laborers. But CASA realized it could also help immigrants get licenses. He crisscrosses Maryland every week to inform as many people as possible.
His is a race against time. By May 2008 all states will have to abide by the provisions of the REAL ID Act that would make it impossible for an undocumented worker to get a license.
Posted to Immigration at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)
Los Angeles Times supports illegal immigration, again and again
Christopher Goffard of the LAT offers "Costa Mesa's Border Heat Puts a Chill in Its Latinos". First, of course, there's the title's assumption that all Latinos are either illegal aliens or supporters of same. Then, the LAT offers the impression that supporting illegal immigration is a "generous" thing and opposing it is only for meanies:In a Republican county known as a cradle of border enforcement zeal, Costa Mesa has long been celebrated — and maligned — as a city that offered immigrants a generous embrace...What would happen if SOS went away? Well, all those "immigrants" might find it more difficult to live there. And, fewer would come. And, all those who are profiting off of illegal immigration would be forced to raise their prices to attract legal workers. This article could have been ordered up by those who are profiting off cheap labor.
Now, [a Latino with illegal aliens in the family] said, the city seems meaner, less like home...
...What Costa Mesa has are high-profile charities, such as Share Our Selves. All week long, immigrants stream in for medical care, clothes and bags of groceries — workers who clean the city's big houses, keep its yards hedged and oil the gears of its humming economy. They know the 36-year-old charity is a friendly place that won't ask about their citizenship.
The charity helped forge Costa Mesa's incongruous reputation as "a city with a heart" — to use the words of a former county supervisor — in a county that has been a caldron of border-enforcement sentiment...
Perhaps it's time for the LAT to drop the charade that supporting illegal immigration is the generous thing to do, when in fact all it does is support those who are trying to profit off of illegal activity.
As always, readers.rep *at* latimes.com is your friend.
Posted to Immigration at 09:44 AM | Comments (1)
Fred Barnes is mostly clueless on immigration
Fred Barnes ("FB"), the executive editor of The Weekly Standard, shows that he's almost clue-free "Losing Friends and Influence":
On immigration, Bush is not a conventional conservative or any other kind of conservative. His instinct is to sympathize with immigrants. Bush believes that whether they come to the United States legally or illegally, they come for the right reasons, chiefly for economic opportunity and the chance to shape their own destiny in life.
Does FB seriously believe that Bush believes the BS he peddles?
This has put the president deeply at odds with most Republicans in Congress and the army of conservative talk radio hosts and their listeners around the country. They regard Bush as a slacker on immigration. Their primary aim is to tighten security along the border with Mexico. And the legislation that passed the House last December would do exactly that, partly by erecting a 700-mile wall.
Actually, supporters of illegal immigration bring up "border security" in various contexts. They say that illegal immigration has increased despite increased border security. And, they say that a further increase wouldn't work. What many opponents of illegal immigration support is going after the employers. Since many of those employers or the organizations representing them fund the GOP, I guess we can understand why Barnes might want to ignore that point. That's assuming, of course, that he even understands what he types.
Bush had little influence in the House debate, though he wound up endorsing the measure. His mistake was having proposed in 2004, as his first major immigration initiative, a program to allow illegal immigrants to work legally in this country. Most Republicans and conservatives want stepped-up border security to come first...
Plus, bankers, employers, and others who profit off illegal immigration doing the perp walk.
...How could this adversarial relationship on immigration have been avoided? "If we had to do it again, we probably would lead with enforcement," a White House official said. In other words, soften up the immigrant-bashers with dramatically increased border security and then, and only then, seek a temporary worker program in a year or two. That might have succeeded.
Yes, Fred, it's all about "bashing" "immigrants". And, note that Barnes is basically suggesting a scam designed to flood the U.S. with cheap labor rather than supporting what's in the country's best interest.
As things now stand, the president's hopes rest with the Senate. His strategy is to get senators to include a modest guest worker program in their bill--a program that could be expanded later.
Yes, because many members of the Senate are just as corrupt and un-American as our president.
Posted to Immigration at 03:42 AM | Comments (3)
Pete Domenici to flood U.S. with immigrants based on minor childhood incident
Previously we discussed Senator Pete Domenici's massive amnesty scheme. Now comes word that he must be nuts:...During World War II Domenici's mother Alda, a legal U.S. citizen, was like many other Italian immigrants arrested during a post-Pearl Harbor checkup.Can't we do better than people like this? Is he really qualified for his job?
Alda Domenici was released on bond four hours later and returned safely to her home without further ado. [Senator's Experience Reflected in New Bill, James W. Brosnan, the Albuquerque Tribune, February 18, 2006]
But in a floor statement recalling the incident, Domenici said:"I believe that we can, and must, do our best to prevent situations like this from occurring in the future."So, let's see... based on a four hour event that occurred six decades ago, which has not a single parallel to today's illegal immigration offensive, Domenici proposes his WISH amnesty that would: [massive downsides enumerated]
Posted to Immigration at 09:36 PM | Comments (4)
Dubai: More ports than thought; poll; Thomas Kean; trading arms for national security?
Our "American" president continues to sell out this country: "22 ports in Arab deal, not just 6 as reported":
According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans...
Also, only 17 percent of Americans are in favor of Bush's scheme.
And, Thomas Kean from the 9/11 commission says the deal never should have been considered:
"From our point of view, we don't want foreigners controlling our ports... From their point of view, this is a legitimate company that had a legitimate bid and won, and here are all these congressmen saying all these things about not wanting this company. It looks to them like it's anti-Arab... I think this deal is going to be killed," Kean said. "The question is how much damage is this going to do to us before it's killed."
Here's a fact sheet on the deal from an industry association.
And:
"The UAE [arms] market is definitely important to the US," said Tom Baranauskas, a senior Middle East analyst at the Connecticut-based Forecast International, a leading provider of defense market intelligence services. "Just the order for 80 of the newest-generation F-16E/Fs alone was a major buy from the US," he said.
Posted to Terrorism at 11:02 AM | Comments (1)
Casa de Maryland might soon get big surprise
The Casa de Maryland is a state-funded group that supports illegal immigration.
Gustavo Torres, their executive director, recently said this about the Minuteman Project members who've been monitoring illegal labor hiring halls:
"We are going to target [the MMP members] in a specific way... [by taking their own pictures]... Then we are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids, and go to their work... If they are going to do this to us, we are going to respond in the same way, to let people know their neighbors are extremists, that they are anti-immigrant. They are going to hear from us."
Obviously, it's bad enough that a state-funded group not just supports illegal immigration but threatens to invade the privacy of patriotic Americans' children. However, there are a couple other pitfalls in this scheme which I'm not going to discuss just in case someone reads this and tips them off.
Also:
The most recent annual report for Casa de Maryland, a non-profit, shows $2,771,615 in income for 2004-2005, of which 51 percent was provided by various government agencies. According to its website, the organization's employment program provides day-labor placement for "low-income Latino and African immigrants ... as employers seek to replace permanent workers." "We never ask for documentation," Torres told the New York Times in December. "Our mission is to help anyone in need of service, regardless of their immigration status. We are proud of that."
Note that Kim Propeack of Casa is a frequent quote source for the WaPo and other rags, and every time that a paper quotes them in the future please send them the WND link so they know who they're dealing with.
Previously:
CASA of Maryland worried Sensenbrenner bill will shut their day laborer centers
Maryland to be sued over driver's licenses; AP not telling whole truth
"Purging illegal aliens from voter rolls not easy"
Posted to Immigration at 07:46 AM | Comments (1)
Senator Arlen Specter introduces "temporary" "guest" worker scheme
Senator Arlen "Single Bullet Theory" Specter has introduced a doubleplusgood "temporary" "guest" worker scheme. Not only would the hundreds of thousands of workers be "temporary", they'd also just be "guests". And, it includes a massive amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens already here.
Senator Arlen Specter is a liar.
In fact, anyone who refers to their "guests" as temporary is lying to you. The "guests" would be here to stay, as the recent example of Temporary Protected Status shows. The immigration "reform" we need is to discredit and drive from office corrupt politicians like Specter who put other factors ahead of what's good for the country.
Posted to Immigration at 03:33 AM | Comments (1)
"Union Leader Supporting Guest Worker Proposal"
The NYT has a story about the debates between unions who want massive immigration and guest worker schemes, and those who do not.
It concerns the confab mentioned in "Floridians: ask John McCain questions he can't answer!", but they - of course! - didn't look into all the other groups involved in the meeting that I discussed.
Posted to Immigration at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)
The myth of a labor shortage: letter to the L.A. Times
The LAT prints two letters under the heading "Immigrants taking jobs from unskilled workers":
No technologically advanced industrial nation like the United States, which has 27 million functionally illiterate adults, needs to be concerned about a shortage of unskilled workers.
And:
It's reassuring that a newspaper whose editorials support immigration can report the unvarnished truth in news articles: Immigrant workers contribute to unemployment among blacks. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s was able to reduce job discrimination because it took place before immigration skyrocketed.
Posted to Immigration at 12:55 PM | Comments (2)
"Did UAE Save Bin Laden?"
Here's more on our new port partners:Before President Bush gets anywhere near casting his first veto to ensure that the government of the United Arab Emirates can manage elements of six U.S. ports, someone ought to put before him pages 137-139 of "The 9/11 Commission Report...
The story the commission tells is that [Richard C. Clarke] made a call to a high-ranking UAE official that may have inadvertently saved bin Laden from a U.S. missile strike. The commission’s reporting strongly suggests someone in the UAE government tipped off someone in Afghanistan, protecting bin Laden.
In early 1999, the Clinton Administration wanted to fire missiles at bin Laden without risking civilian casualties. Bin Laden played into our hands. Intelligence reports from Afghan “tribals” indicated he was frequenting a small hunting camp adjacent to a larger camp outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. Here U.S. missiles could score a clean kill.
But then officials from the UAE got in the way. The commission said:
"On February 8, the military began to ready itself for a possible strike. The next day, national technical intelligence confirmed the location and description of the larger camp and showed the nearby presence of an official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates. But the location of Bin Laden's quarters could not be pinned down so precisely... According to reporting from the tribals, bin Laden regularly went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited the Emiratis. The tribals expected him to be at the hunting camp for such a visit at least until midmorning on February 11. Clarke wrote to Berger's deputy on February 10 that the military was then doing targeting work to hit the main camp with cruise missiles and should be in position to strike the following morning. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appears to have been briefed on the situation.
"No strike was launched. By February 12 bin Laden had apparently moved on, and the immediate strike plans became moot. According to CIA and Defense officials, policymakers were concerned about the danger that a strike would kill an Emirati prince or other senior officials who might be with bin Laden or close by. Clarke told us the strike was called off after consultations with Director Tenet because the intelligence was dubious, and it seemed to Clarke as if the CIA was presenting an option to attack America's best counterterrorism ally in the Gulf. The lead CIA official in the field, Gary Schroen, felt that the intelligence reporting in this case was very reliable. The bin Laden unit chief, 'Mike,' agreed. Schroen believes today that this was a lost opportunity to kill bin Laden before 9/11...
Posted to Terrorism at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
Al Gore's Current TV gets sued... twice!
A Maryland company and Minnesota Public Radio are suing Al Gore's Current TV network in separate suits charging trademark infringement over the name of the network.
An earlier statement had the following:
"We know of no consumers who confuse us with Minnesota Public Radio, and we can't imagine that anybody ever would".
Maybe if they tried harder!
Posted to Miscellania at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)
FBI discovers $2.2 million in stolen loot in Lagos, Nigeria
Dear esteemed reader:
The daily dispatches have gleefully reported the bright news that the United States FBI has recovered $2.2 million in stolen loot obtained through the provenances of Internet fraud. in Lagos, Nigeria. That sum is Three Hundred and Nineteen Million Nigerian Dollars (N$319).
The FBI, however, has trouble finding out who this money belongs to due to the scurilous nature of the transactions involved. Therefore, I ask you, the reader, for your help to disburse this money. We are informed that they need a victim to step forward as having been the person from whom these goods were obtained.
etc. etc.
Yours,
Mobutu Sese Sese
Posted to WackyHumor at 04:30 AM | Comments (0)
Rob Reiner denies wrongdoing
Meathead is on the defensive:Hollywood director Rob Reiner denied any wrongdoing Thursday in response to recent scrutiny about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds for a June ballot initiative he is spearheading.
Reiner, who heads the state's First 5 California Children and Families Commission he helped create, is now leading a campaign for a ballot initiative that would establish a state constitutional right to preschool for all 4-year-olds and raise income taxes for wealthier households to fund a preschool program.
A Los Angeles Times story earlier this week detailed, however, how the commission spent $23 million on ads to promote the idea of "preschool for all," which happens to be the same slogan Reiner uses to describe his latest initiative, Proposition 82.
The commission also earlier paid for a political consultant who now is the campaign manager of Prop. 82, the story noted.
...Reiner's attorneys have asserted that the First 5 ads were legal and proper, and the entertainer-turned-activist himself on Thursday dismissed the Times story as "the price of being a public figure."
When asked to comment about the money spent on the commission's ads following a speech he gave in San Jose on Prop. 82, Reiner said, "There is absolutely no conflict of interest."
Posted to California at 02:43 AM | Comments (1)
Yet another illegal alien march against HR 4437
This one was on Long Island and featured on the other side:
- Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, ("an immigrant advocacy group")
- Hempstead Village Deputy Mayor Henry Conyers
- Edison Severino of the Manhattan-based Local 78 of the Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste Laborers
Reporting was by Bart Jones of Newsday.
And, they've got a cute new talking point!
"We're here on George Washington's birthday to demonstrate our moral outrage against this un-American bill," said Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group. "Our founding father would be turning over in his grave if he knew what was happening."
Valenzuela's group is mentioned here as having a link to the New York Immigration Coalition. Even worse, they have an indirect (and perhaps even direct) link to the local Mexican consul. And, he dares mention George Washington? If this group had pulled this same deal in Washington's time I hesitate to think what would have happened.
And, as Bart informs us:
The bill is provoking street protests among immigrants and activists from Boston to Miami to California. In Philadelphia, some restaurant workers stayed home on Valentine's Day. The same day, the foreign ministers of Mexico, Colombia, Panama and El Salvador flew to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and voice alarm over the bill.
We really can't afford to have foreign citizens - some with ties to the governments of those countries - agitating and protesting inside our country.
Previous coverage of this latest round of marches starts in "Send illegals home - pronto!" and "Illegal aliens, supporters to march on Washington".
UPDATE: Here's another one from Delaware. Chicken processor Perdue Farms appears to be hinting that it employs illegal aliens.
Posted to Immigration at 08:42 PM | Comments (5)
"Republicans, H-1B Work Visas, Immigration and Charlie Brown"
There's a long article about the titular subject here. Other topics covered include MN's Gov. Tim Pawlenty, 3M, Microsoft, and George Bush.
Posted to Immigration at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
Most hate crime victims are young, poor, and white
WASHINGTON – The most likely victim of a hate crime in the U.S. is a poor, young, white, single urban dweller, according to an analysis of Justice Department statistics collected from between July 2000 and December 2003.
A November report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics detailing a study of 210,000 "hate crimes" a year during that period has gone virtually unreported by the U.S. press.
But it does contain some surprising numbers. While race is, by far, the No. 1 factor cited as the reason for hate crimes, blacks are slightly less likely to be victims and far more likely to be perpetrators, the statistics show...
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 06:52 AM | Comments (14)
Georgia farmers should just consider out-and-out bribery
Russ Bynum of the AP offers today's article about crops rotting in the fields: "Effects of Crackdown on Illegals".
It contains several quotes from Georgia farmers claiming that they'd go out of business if they couldn't hire workers. And, while they claim that all of them provide the proper documentation, they also admit that most of them are probably here illegally. And, they also warn that if the documentation requirements are strengthened, they might have to shut up shop.
Have they just considered giving bags of cash to public officials? That will probably get their attention.
If you'd like to suggest that the AP does actual news coverage rather than printing propaganda, please send an email to: feedback *at* ap.org
Previously in this series: "The Guardian: American crops rotting in the fields"
Posted to Immigration at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)
"Temporary" Protected Status extended; preview of "guest" worker schemes
The Bush administration has extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Central Americans. They get yet another year in the U.S.Some of them have been here since 1998, others since 2001.
Obviously, this is exactly how the various "guest" worker schemes proposed by Bush and others would work: at the start of the program we'd be promised that they'd have to leave after six years. Then, year after year it would be extended and extended.
Once again: anyone who claims "temporary" workers wouldn't be permanent residents is lying to you. And, this latest episode shows some of the people who'd support keeping our "guests" around:
But Central American leaders and several members of Congress have been pushing for a renewal. Immigrants and their advocates say allowing the special status to expire would devastate not only these individuals but also their families — and the Central American nations — who count on the billions of dollars the immigrants earn in the United States and send home.What country does Ros-Lehtinen really represent?
Salvadoran President Tony Saca is scheduled to visit Washington Friday.
[Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen] said in a statement that without a renewal of the special residency, the Central Americans would "face deportation back to a country where they may encounter violence, civil unrest or a homeland still recuperating from natural disasters."
Posted to Immigration at 02:38 AM | Comments (2)
Mexico tightens border security
Mexico has deployed soldiers to the border. And, this time they're on Mexico's side of the border.
Specifically, they're at bridges between Brownsville and Laredo. The Border Patrol wasn't informed of this new move and they only noticed it because much less traffic was coming through.
I think this can be considered to be two things: a) a preposterous attempt to show that that corrupt country is doing something about drug trafficking, and b) an attempt to show the economic power of legal visitors from Mexico.
Posted to Immigration at 10:34 PM | Comments (4)
Bishops urge: show false, idiotic compassion to illegal aliens
Dear Archbishop Michael Sheehan of the New Mexico archdiocese:
I read that you want us to show "compassion" to "immigrants". In fact, you say: "We don't condone illegal entry, but when someone is here, we try to take care of them."
Let me try to put this in a way that you might understand. (Regular readers are invited to skip this post since you already know this, but the archbishop probably doesn't.)
Let's say you set up an ice cream stand in Afghanistan, and you gave out free ice cream to anyone who shows up. (Afghanis love ice cream!) There's just one catch: your stand is surrounded by a mine field.
Most of the people who come for the free ice cream make it, but a certain percentage don't.
Obviously, you don't want people to be blown up. But, at the same time, you're smarter than Archbishop Michael Sheehan, so you realize that you can't just build giant bridges over all the mine fields, because everyone in Afghanistan would come for the free ice cream.
Hmmmmm.... That's a bit of a head-scratcher, isn't it?
Hey! Here's an idea! Let's say you stopped giving out the free ice cream. That way, no one would get blown up trying to cross the mine field. If anyone does make it through, you send them back without free ice cream, and you make sure they tell their friends. That way, fewer and fewer will get blown up.
If you're thinking compassionately, that is your only option. Every other option might sound compassionate, but it isn't. In fact, it's easy to question whether someone is really compassionate if they support anything else. If anyone tries to claim there is some other option, then they're literally living in a fantasy world.
Plus, that will encourage the Afghanis to build up their own ice cream manufacturing infrastructure, even if they need to replace their current corrupt political system to do that.
So, Archbishop Michael Sheehan, do you want to be truly compassionate, or do you want to just look like you're being compassionate?
Posted to Immigration at 08:52 PM | Comments (7)
Insty reports: port deal no problem!
Instapundit reports that the port deal was much ado about nothing. Whew! I'm relieved that we don't need to worry about yet more Bush administration corruption and attempts to sell this country out to the globalist agenda. Everyone: relax!
Extra-special bonus: co-idiot Kevin Drum weighs in.
Previously: "Dubai company set to run U.S. ports has ties to administration"
Posted to Terrorism at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
"States mull bills on aliens"
There's a roundup of various states' activities here.
Posted to Immigration at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)
"Dubai company set to run U.S. ports has ties to administration"
I already reported this, but now that the MSM is covering it I guess it's official:The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.And, of course: "Bush Says Dubai Port Deal Should Proceed, Threatens Veto"
One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.
Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration...
Previously: "Dubai: Donald Rumsfeld not consulted despite being on CFIUS board"
Posted to Terrorism at 09:26 AM | Comments (2)
Profiting off illegal activity in Santa Ana, California
Social Compact is a "Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research group that gets funding from financial and real estate companies." More on them below. They recently released a study on Santa Ana, and found out that the residents have more money than previously thought. In fact, it might even be a massive profit opportunity for those who don't mind profiting off of illegal activity:It's not surprising that the study would find previously uncounted residents and income, because it was already known that these neighborhoods are home to some number of undocumented immigrants, said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University in Orange.All those illegal aliens just came here to work, but they stayed to corrupt our local politicians and business leaders. Maybe someone should whisper the word "RICO" in their ears before they go too far down the road of trying to tap into the "informal" economy.
"They tried to quantify all of that," Adibi said. "Quantification helps, because any business that wants to start any operation, they usually do market research to have a good profile of who potential customers are going to be. This type of a study gives some numbers and helps these people to better evaluate the market."
The study found that two-thirds of the households in the two neighborhoods have no documented credit histories or banking relationships. It estimated the informal economy at $183 million, or 17 percent of the area's total economy.
If a group pimps profiting off illegal activity, should you really be surprised at where they get their money?
Social Compact is funded through fee-for-service income from its market analysis work and through contributions from Social Compact board members and private foundations. State Farm Insurance, the Ford Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, Bank of America, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation provided funding for the Emerging Neighborhood Markets Initiative pilot work in Chicago, the foundation from which the Drill Down techniques were developed. Government grants from SBA and HUD provide funding for the National Pilot Initiative aimed at strengthening communities anchored by MLK thoroughfares or institutions. Typically our fee-for-service income comes from private sector leaders who wish to better understand the untapped potential in specific inner-city markets and/or from municipal governments and community-based institutions that are looking for ways to articulate their intuitive sense of their neighborhoods' strengths in a business-based manner.Please contact your representatives and ask them to avoid funding groups that promote illegal immigration and corruption.
Posted to Immigration at 06:26 AM | Comments (3)
Dubai: Donald Rumsfeld not consulted despite being on CFIUS board
I think this tells you all you need to know (nofollowpolicy):
Donald Rumsfeld, as Secretary of Defense, is a member of Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. As such, he was one of the people who, according to the Treasury Department, unanimously approved the sale on February 13. How could do that when he didn't even find out about the sale until last weekend?
Previously: "I changed my mind! The Dubai deal must go through!" (/satire)
"Dubai would control part of U.S. military shipments under Bush scheme"
Chertoff assures: massively unsafe, dangerous Dubai ports deal is safe
UPDATE: Now, Bush claims that he also didn't know about the deal until recently. This could be an excuse, but it's also quite possible that other members of his crew didn't bother to tell him.
White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Wednesday the UAE company, Dubai Ports, "is a reputable firm that went through a congressionally approved vetting process." He said the U.S. has "the necessary safeguards to make sure that the security of our country is in place" and that rejecting the deal would send "a dangerous signal to people overseas that America plays favorites."... "The president wants this deal to go forward because it was followed by the book and he wants Congress to understand that," Bartlett said on CBS' "The Early Show." He told Fox News Channel that Bush felt strongly that "we need to be adding strategic partners" in the Mideast.
The last might make some sense, but not with something closely linked with our security. Perhaps we could get those "strategic partners" to supply non-essential products having no relation to security.
Posted to Terrorism at 04:26 AM | Comments (0)
I changed my mind! The Dubai deal must go through!
I've just done a complete 180 on this whole deal of the Bush administration turning control of key ports over to a company controlled by a questionable foreign country with links to terrorism.
I now fully support the deal.
What changed my mind was this post over at what I used to refer to as InstaIjit. As "Glenn" points out, giving a country with terrorist ties deep control of our ports and even military shipping is necessary in order to show the Arab world that we're nice people.
The last thing I'd want to do is offend our friends in the Arab world, so therefore I fully support turning over a vital part of our infrastructure to this questionable foreign country.
Tomorrow: revisiting my comments about George Bush's plan to outsource border protection to the "good-hearted" workers of Mexico. Hugh Hewitt changed my mind: it just might work as long as we believe!
UPDATE: Dick Meyer, Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, read my mind and offers the comforting "In Defense Of Dubai".
Posted to Terrorism at 08:59 PM | Comments (3)
Sen. Pete Domenici's massive amnesty scheme
This would be funny if it weren't so sad that we have people like this in charge:In preparation for a debate in the Senate next month on immigration policy, Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) has introduced legislation that would grant amnesty to an estimated 12 million people now living illegally in the U.S. and admit an additional 500,000 new guest workers plus dependant family members every year. Under the Domenici legislation, known as the Welcoming Immigrants to a Secure Homeland (WISH) of 2006 bill, all of the "guest workers" would eventually be allowed to become permanent residents.
In addition to creating a new guest worker visa, the WISH Act would vastly expand existing guest worker programs. Under the Domenici bill, limits on H-1B high tech workers would be virtually eliminated, and foreign student visas would be almost automatically convertible to permanent residency.
"There is virtually no American job, educational opportunity, or community that would not be undermined by this disastrous piece of legislation," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Under the WISH Act, millions of illegal aliens would be rewarded with amnesty, and business interests would be granted access to unlimited numbers of guest workers who will never have to leave. For ordinary Americans, the legislation holds the promise of downwardly spiraling wages, massive population growth and the collapse of vital social institutions...
Posted to Immigration at 03:35 PM | Comments (1)
Alfonso Chardy of Knight-Ridder supports illegal immigration
That reporter offers "Migrants say they'll stay, legally or not". It's a highly-skewed "news" piece that doesn't look beyond the plight of those who came here illegally. It doesn't even have any quotes from those who support our laws, and it doesn't discuss things like political corruption.
Posted to Immigration_piipps at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)
Don't be a hater, support illegal immigration and lowering American wages!
A company called Triumph wants to bring a new pork plant to East Moline, IL. From December came "Residents debate over new pork plant in area":"And then you have the air-quality issues, such as dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, as well as dust-borne pathogens," [Karen Hudson, a factory farm consultant from west-central Illinois who is president of Families Against Rural Messes] said. "There are not enough regulations to protect the people. The only way the big corporations can make a profit is by bending the rules."Now, the "Latino community" is speaking out:
Terry Spence, a factory farm consultant from northeast Missouri, said such plants often bring with them costs people don't anticipate. He said those costs involve hospitalization for workers without health insurance, upkeep of roadways and education for migrant workers.
Terry Bush of Davenport, a retired steel worker, said he was greatly concerned about working conditions...
They're concerned the plant is spawning racism and unfair stereotypes about Mexican workers. They held an anti-hate rally on Monday afternoon at the Moline Community Center to address some of the comments pork plant opponents have been making.Obviously, they're trying to shout down the legitimate concerns of U.S. citizens and make them politically incorrect. Who wants to be called a hater? If the illegal immigration supporters can get the local "liberals" on their side, they just might win.
Some have called the pork plant an illegal alien magnet that will bring crime and drain the healthcare system. But Latino leaders say these comments are made out of fear and ignorance.
Of course, that win would come at the expense of the truth. Whereever illegal workers go, those who prey on them are sure to follow. For instance: "Iowans get exotic treat: Central American gangs". They came to victimize the workers at various meatpacking plants in that state, and they would surely come for the new East Moline workers. As for the health costs, either all those academic studies are based on "fear and ignorance", or supporters of illegal immigration simply have no counter-argument.
The article also contains a quote from Esteban Loustanau, VP of Casa Guanajuato:
"We need to start breaking barriers and have an honest discussion about issues"Will that "honest discussion" include calling the other side "haters" for opposing illegal immigration?
As for his organization, could you please see if there are any links between it and the Mexican government?
Bearing in mind that there might be several organizations with the same name, from "Public-private efforts 'inject life' across border" we have:
...Mr Pichardo and Mr. Rubi take part in the Mexican government's 3-for-1 program through Casa Guanajuato, a Dallas club formed about eight years ago to meet the needs of communities back home in Mexico.And, from 8/7/02's "Mexico Shuffles Responsibility For Migrant Affairs"
For every dollar the group kicks in, the government adds $2 to $3 more, with the matches coming from the municipal, state and federal governments in Mexico.
In the state of Guanajuato, the number of public-private projects financed this way has nearly doubled to about 100 in two years, says Diana Alvarez, coordinator of Guanajuato's Migrant Abroad Program...
Despite complaints from some immigrants in the United States, President Vicente Fox closed a special presidential office on migrant affairs Tuesday and created a cabinet-level council and institute to take its place...If you can find direct links between Casa Guanajuato and either the pork plant company or the Mexican government that would be much appreciated.
But Hernandez's agency [the Presidential Office for Attention to Mexicans Abroad] struggled with a small staff and budget. Those close to migrant issues also say Hernandez suffered from competitive clashes with Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda, who will sit on the new National Council for Mexican Communities Abroad and supervise the new Institute for Mexicans Abroad.
Fox praised the work of Hernandez, who attended Tuesday's event and was named a public relations aide to the president.
"That office had very clear and specific tasks to be completed within a certain time frame," Fox said of Hernandez's agency. "That has been done. And that's why now we are moving on to a new phase."
Activists invited to the event said they hope the new council can achieve gains for migrants that were stymied by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including a proposal by Fox and President Bush to legalize millions of undocumented migrants and grant more temporary work visas to Mexicans.
But some U.S. Latino activists who considered Hernandez's office a direct link to Fox were upset that Fox closed the office without consulting them first.
"For many in the Mexican community in the United States, it is impossible to accept an invitation to the installation of this council because the community was not consulted about the disappearance of the presidential office," Francisco Zamora Horta of the Atlanta-based group Casa Guanajuato said in a written statement.
Casa Guanajuato is a U.S. network of migrants from Fox's home state...
Posted to Immigration at 10:01 AM | Comments (2)
"Send illegals home - pronto!"
Normally, one might consider philly.com a "liberal" rag, but apparently they've got someone there who's bucking the trend. From Stu Bykofsky:...Watching the rally at Independence Mall last week I was struck by the dazzling chutzpah of illegal aliens' demands to be left alone by the government, like a teenager shrugging off a nagging mother.
They were complaining about legislation - the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act - that would make them felons and boot them out of the U.S.A.
But - oh! In Philadelphia, the restaurant industry is heavily dependent on bracero labor. Elsewhere in the nation, agriculture and construction leans heavily on "undocumented" workers to do the back-breaking work.
Who would do that work if we had no "uninvited guests?" we're asked.
Um, the same people who did it before they arrived: Low-income Americans.
Americans won't work for so little money, we're told.
Yes they will, because they have.
And if they won't, unleash capitalism and hike the pay until they will. If that means I may pay more for produce, or a restaurant meal, I'm OK with that...
Posted to Immigration at 04:23 AM | Comments (11)
Floridians: ask John McCain questions he can't answer!
From this:
[Arizona Sen. John McCain] will be in Miami on Thursday and will promote a business-backed guest worker program and other immigration reforms. The Arizona senator will speak at "town hall" meeting in South Florida sponsored by the New American Opportunity Campaign. That group includes labor unions, business interests, Hispanic groups and other supporters of guest worker program.
If you're in Miami, could you please try to attend this event and publicly embarass John McCain by trying to ask him a tough question he can't answer? Unfortunately, the event isn't listed at his site (mccain.senate.gov), nor is it listed at that groups's site (cirnow.org). Perhaps there will be an announcement soon, or perhaps they're keeping it private to avoid difficult questions.
For instance, ask him why he wants to bring around 36 million new people here over the next 8 years.
On a more generic note, ask him how we could end illegal immigration without doing something about political corruption. And, point out that his bill is an example of political corruption: giving in to those forces that oppose our immigration laws rather than fighting against our enemies.
If you prefer the sign format, try something like: "McCain-Kennedy, the massive amnesty prefered by 9 out of 10 corrupt Mexican government officials" or similar.
You can also ask him what he's doing speaking before a group that, through a member of its board of directors, allegedly has links to the Mexican government. Is John McCain willing to sell out America to Mexico? Here are few groups on their board of directors:
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) (allegedly has links to the Mexican government)
Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights
National Council of La Raza ("National Council of The Race")
New York Immigration Coalition
Posted to Immigration at 11:54 PM | Comments (2)
Dubai would control part of U.S. military shipments under Bush scheme
As discussed here (nofollowpolicy), the Bush scheme to sell off port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia to a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates has even more downsides than originally thought:A major part of the story, however, has been mostly overlooked. The company, Dubai Ports World, would also control the movement of military equipment on behalf of the U.S. Army through two other ports. From today's edition of the British paper Lloyd's List:Now, let's take a look at this:[P&O] has just renewed a contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010.According to the journal Army Logistician "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports."
In mid-January, President Bush nominated a senior executive of Dubai Ports World, David Sanborn, to run the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration. Mr. Sanborn had been running the company's operations in Europe and Latin America...Both Sanborn and Snow were previously with CSX. Snow was their CEO, and Sanborn was an executive with the CSX/Sea-Land division.
The Dubai purchase was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, of which [Treasury Secretary John Snow] is chairman and which does not usually disclose information about its deliberations, said Brookly McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department. Ms. McLaughlin declined to say when the committee began or ended its review of the deal or what national-security implications it considered...
Obviously, the Bush administration is completely, absolutely corrupt.
Posted to Terrorism at 09:44 PM | Comments (5)
Bush gets new orders from Vicente Fox; Chertoff named to help
This all sounds so Soviet:U.S. President George W. Bush named Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as the U.S. point person to work with Mexican officials to clamp down on increasing violence along the U.S.-Mexican border, the White House said on Monday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan made the announcement after Bush talked by telephone with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, to discuss immigration and border violence, which has surged in recent months.
"Primarily they talked about the increased border violence and the two leaders talked about the importance of working together to improve our border security and stop the violence," McClellan told reporters.
The leaders decided to pick a high-level contact within each government to work together on the issue and Bush tapped Chertoff for the role, McClellan said...
Posted to Immigration at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
To: Dennis Hastert. Re: DREAM Act.
Dear Dennie:
I understand that either late this month or early next, supporters of illegal immigration - including the Center for Community Change - will be conducting a "Diplomas Not Death" vigil outside your office in Batavia, IL. They want you to assist them in passing the DREAM Act, an explicitly anti-American bill that would devalue American citizenship and increase illegal immigration.
I am absolutely positive that you do not want to be seen to be taking college discounts away from U.S. citizens and giving them to illegal aliens. Many Americans realize exactly what this bill does and how anti-American it is, and I'm sure you don't want them to think you're will to sell out this country for non-existent votes from far-left supporters of illegal immigration.
And, regarding their slogan "Diplomas Not Death", all the groups that support illegal immigration are indirectly responsible: if prospective illegal aliens knew they couldn't find a job or get services, they wouldn't try to come here. Groups like the CCC help form the magnet drawing illegal aliens to try to cross the desert.
Posted to Immigration at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)
Texans, Mexicans on cost/benefits of illegal immigration
The Dallas Morning News and their Mexican counterpart polled people in Texas and in Mexico:Mexicans and Texans are divided on whether illegal immigration helps or hurts the U.S. economy:Even if illegal aliens came here carrying free ice cream, would it be good? What about, oh, just as an example, political corruption: companies profiting off illegal activity donating to politicians who then support illegal immigration. Isn't preventing that much more important than any economic benefits?
83% of Mexicans surveyed say it helps the U.S. economy.
56% of Texans say illegal immigration hurts it.
58% of Mexicans doubt their next president will reduce illegal immigration to the U.S.
47% of Texans oppose building a security fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. About 45 percent said they favor it.
Posted to Immigration at 03:09 PM | Comments (2)
Rob Reiner-supporting commercials paid for by tax money
From "TV Ads Put Focus on Reiner":Police sirens wail as a scruffy teenager, clutching a bag, runs frantically through the streets. Entering a schoolyard, he reaches into the bag. Out comes … a graduation gown, which he dons to receive a diploma.I assumed that the commercial they describe was being paid for by Reiner or one of his private groups. Now it turns out he's much smarter! Those Hollywoodians are indeed experts at using OPM.
The scene is from a television ad, paid for with tax money and made by consultants close to Hollywood producer Rob Reiner. It aired across California this winter, touting the benefits of preschool. "When kids go," the narrator says, "we all benefit."
The release of the ad, and two others, by a state commission Reiner heads coincided with his launch of a ballot initiative that would tax the rich to fund preschool for all California 4-year-olds.
Although Reiner did not directly approve the spots, their timing and substance highlight ties between the public commission and his private political campaigns and raise questions about whether the state-funded commercials were used to boost the initiative's prospects...
Previously: "[Rob] Reiner initiative bad for preschoolers"
Posted to California at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
Illegal aliens, supporters to march on Washington
Yet another march for and by illegal aliens is planned for March:[Armando Navarro of the National Alliance for Human Rights] told The Washington Times that 2006 will be a year of "massive mobilizations, activism and political participation to countervail the heinous, racist and nativist crusade" of those who support the bill and the construction of "an Iron Curtain" along the U.S.-Mexico border.They point out that those countries get about $32 billion in remittances, which just might explain their crusade.
In addition to efforts by the coalition, the foreign ministers of 11 Latin American countries opposed to the Sensenbrenner bill [Colombia, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic] met in Cartagena, Colombia, last week and also agreed to begin a massive lobbying campaign in Washington to defeat the legislation.
The ministers will send a team to Capitol Hill this week to identify key members of Congress on the immigration issue. They will call for the implementation of a guest-worker program, outline their opposition to the criminalization of illegal entry, demand better treatment of migrants, and condemn proposals for tighter control of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Previously: "Illegal aliens march, demand same rights as citizens. A good thing?"
2/22 UPDATE: Yet another protest, this time in Florida. It has the usual suspects and slogans, including two priests acting like cheap labor pimps:
About 550 Hispanic immigrants cheered and waved signs under the banyan tree at the Old Lee County Courthouse to draw attention to a proposed federal law that could criminalize routine contact with undocumented aliens.
Cheers could be heard for two blocks in all directions as they shouted "No somos criminales" — "We are not criminals" — and listened to impassioned speeches from protest organizers and supporters addressing the orderly group through bull horns.
The Florida United Latinos Organization set up the event, which attracted people from Tampa to Naples, and from farms in De Soto, Manatee and Hardee counties...
Two Roman Catholic priests, the Revs. Victor Caviedes of Fort Myers and Ililario Rivera of Wachula, said most migrant workers want only the opportunity to cross the border legally and to get driver’s licenses to work here and be productive.
"I know the reality," said Caviedes, of Jesus the Worker church in Fort Myers, who said workers supply labor for employers who have unmet demands for work.
Posted to Immigration at 08:34 AM | Comments (5)
Chertoff assures: massively unsafe, dangerous Dubai ports deal is safe
Yes, I know it's Reuters, but broken clocks and all they seem to have gotten this right:The Bush administration has failed to put adequate security conditions on a deal for a state-owned Dubai company to manage major U.S. ports, and it should not go forward pending a full investigation, a key Republican congressman said yesterday.As you might expect, an administration representative stepped forward to assure the Americans that the deal was A-OK:
Lawmakers from both parties joined in criticizing the deal, and one called the administration "tone deaf" for approving it.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that before the administration approved the sale of British firm P&O, which manages six U.S. ports, to Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates, it failed to determine whether the company could be trusted...
"You can be assured that before a deal is approved we put safeguards in place, assurances in place, that make everybody comfortable that we are where we need to be from a national security viewpoint," [Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff] said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."Time and time again, the Bush administration has demonstrated that they're completely corrupt, incompetent, untrustworthy, and do not have America's best interests at heart. Hopefully hearings are held and this can be blocked before it becomes yet another legacy of their administration.
Posted to Terrorism at 07:17 AM | Comments (1)
David Moats of Rutland Herald: idiot or corrupt?
David Moats is the editorial page editor of Vermont's Rutland Herald, and could I trouble you to ask him whether he's an idiot or whether he's just corrupt? His email address is david.moats *at* rutlandherald.com, and back on February 4 he or a proxy offered an unsigned editorial called "Bienvenidos":Quietly, the Douglas administration has been taking steps to help the growing population of illegal immigrants who in recent years have become an essential part of the dairy industry in Vermont... Vermont farmers are adamant about the importance of Mexican workers to the state's farm economy. Without immigrant workers, the farmers would face a dire labor shortage. It's no wonder that officials in the state Agriculture Agency are more interested in making the workers feel at home than in sending them away...Thankfully, someone responded with "The high cost of illegal labor", which is quite good:
David Moats' "Bienvenidos" editorial endorsed violating our immigration and labor laws, supported the cheap labor lobby, and called our border with Mexico "a geopolitical abstraction."There's more! But, once again, please send an email to david.moats *at* rutlandherald.com and ask him: "are you an idiot, or are you just corrupt?"
...The illegal Mexicans are paid $7 to $8 an hour but the living wage for a single person is at least $10.50, and many of the Mexicans have their families here – illegally, of course. Who pays the difference between what they earn and what they need to survive? We all do...
...If it's ethically OK to violate our immigration and labor laws, is it also ethically OK to violate any other laws we find inconvenient? If it's alright for Vermont farmers to hire cheap, exploitable illegals from Mexico, is it also acceptable for any American employer to hire illegals from any country? There are about 4 billion people in over 80 countries with a lower per capita income than Mexico. Should the illegal Mexicans be replaced with Chinese if they will work cheaper? If we abolish Moats' "geopolitical abstraction" that we call our border, is it possible that some terrorists might be included in the human tsunami that would overwhelm us? As Robert Frost said, "Good fences make good neighbors..."
Posted to Immigration at 03:49 AM | Comments (3)
Will Chicago's surveillance cameras come to Los Angeles?
Guess what: they already have. As detailed a year ago, L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti - consistently an idiot - together with then-mayor Jim Hahn welcomed Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley to the rollout for new security cameras which were placed on Hollywood Boulevard.
Chicago now has a proposed ordinance to require bars to install security cameras. Who exactly would monitor those cameras is uncertain, but I have no doubt that the government would eventually assume that role.
If Daley's advocacy for cameras on the street lead to Los Angeles installing them, have no doubt that our own leading lights - lead no doubt by Garcetti - will soon come out with a similar proposal.
Also, as pointed out in the other entries in this category, there's usually someone around to say something creepy, and here's the current version:
"The safer we make the city, the better it is for everyone," says Chicago Alderman Ray Suarez, who first proposed mandatory cameras in some businesses. "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?"
Posted to Privacy at 09:25 PM | Comments (3)
Illegal aliens march, demand same rights as citizens. A good thing?
Is it a good thing to have illegal aliens agitating for extra rights inside your country? Isn't that a dangerous situation?Here are three recent examples: "Hundreds gather in opposition to federal immigration legislation" by Ted Roelofs of the Grand Rapids Press. It's PIIPPish, and it includes this quote from an illegal alien: "We ask the same rights as every citizen".
"Immigrant groups rally in Miami against proposed law"
And, lastly this:
Thousands marched in northeast Las Vegas today for Immigration Reform. The marchers claim immigrants are treated unfairly and they want equality.Should we give those illegal aliens what they want? Of course not. Even more illegal aliens will come here and they'll demand the same things. And, they'll have a precedent. We can't just allow people to move here illegally and then give them benefits - including even voting rights - because they managed to evade our laws and because our politicians are corrupt.
There have been three events like this in the past 12 months. But today's was the largest with nearly three-thousand participants. Immigration leaders came from Arizona and California.
...The marchers chanted in defiance of current U.S. immigration law and demonstrated their freedom in America.
Marchers were eager to get out what they believe, Hispanics aren't treated equally in Las Vegas.
"There are a lot of people that raise their families, pay their taxes, these people deserve to be legal in America," said Miguel Barrientos, the March Organizer.
The march was put together by the group United Families for Earned Immigration. They are asking for support of the federal McCain-Kennedy Immigration bill being debated in Congress. It would provide a formal path for the nation's illegal immigrants to become citizens.
Posted to Immigration at 01:03 PM | Comments (3)
Bush is lying to you about "guest" workers
Speaking in Tampa yesterday, president Bush offered a fairly standard recitation of his immigration talking points, albeit a bit more incoherent than usual.
Let's just look at this one lie-rich paragraph:
My attitude is, you recognize it for what it is, and you say, you can do this on a temporary basis. You say, if there's a willing employer and a willing worker on a job an American won't do, then it's okay to fill that job, so long as you're not here permanently, so long as this is not -- (applause.) And so I believe there ought to be a temporary worker program. We've tried this in America before -- pretty successful, at least in my own home state of Texas. You got people -- Red Putnam over there, he's got people -- probably have been bringing people in to pick oranges, I don't know. Agriculture relies upon a lot of people willing to do the work that others won't do. And it seems like to me that there ought to be a legal way to make this happen without creating a sense of amnesty or permanency.
First of all, as pointed out many times before, these "temporary" workers will be here for as long as they want. They'll have U.S. citizen children, they'll buy property, start businesses, and variously become entrenched in the U.S. The "liberals" will whine if we try to deport them, and the "conservatives" will whine about losing their monetary contributions.
And, if there were some way to deport "temporary" workers once their time was up, why don't we deport those illegal aliens who are here now?
The answer is simple: president Bush is lying right to your face.
As for the bracero program, it was certainly pretty successful in increasing illegal immigration both during and after its implementation, in addition to being rife with worker abuse.
As for the "Red Putnam" shoutout, I believe that's a reference to Rep. Adam Putnam or another member of his family. He's a 20-something member of a Florida orange growing clan.
Is Bush accusing him of employing illegal aliens, or is he just referring to legal worker programs? Would he care? Would someone read "In Florida Groves, Cheap Labor Means Machines" to our leader?
Posted to Immigration at 05:06 AM | Comments (8)
Denver Post blog
Did you know that the Denver Post has a blog? In fact, you're ordered to think of it "as a funky old apartment building where a lot of different personalities live and hang out".
Cool! Is one of those "different personalities" the Denver Mexican consul? Remember that in 2002 the Denver Post collaborated with the government of Mexico on a pro-illegal immigration puff piece.
Please register to comment there and leave that last link whereever it's appropriate.
Posted to Bloggage at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)
Mexico admits: most emigrants had work in Mexico
Allan Wall discusses this comment from a Vicente Fox spokesman:
In some cases it [emigration] has to do with real problems of poverty, and in others it answers to other types of personal interest. Statistics reveal that a very, very high number of the persons who emigrate to the United Status had work in Mexico. They don't emigrate to get a job, but they emigrate for another series of conditions also of a cultural character, because they hope for a better condition of life despite the fact that they had work here. They aren't going because they don't have work in Mexico.
Kinda shoots holes in the Sally Struthers-level arguments provided by supporters of illegal immigration, doesn't it? Especially those from various Catholic bishops.
Posted to Immigration at 09:58 AM | Comments (5)
HotelWorkersRising.org meets Antonio Villaraigosa
HotelWorkersRising.org is a "progressive" organization featuring losing VP candidate John Edwards and involving the UNITE HERE union. They seek to improve the lot of low-wage earning hotel workers.
Today they met with L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat and a former member of the racial separatist organization MEChA.
A while back, another Democrat, Gil Cedillo, (also a former member of the racial separatist organization MEChA) said the following:
"Latinos have displaced other work communities - clothing, hotel, and restaurant industries that used to be done by blacks and anglos."
Being a "progressive" is a delicate balance between supporting good jobs for Americans and helping flood the U.S. with cheap foreign labor designed to drive down American wages. And, a similar delicate balance between not being racist and supporting racists.
Posted to Immigration at 09:40 PM | Comments (2)
Dick Cheney, ear protection, King Cobra, and birdshot penetration tests
First of all, Dick Cheney has admitted having a little to drink:
We'd taken a break at lunch -- go down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place, and have a barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of ranch, with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3:00 p.m... The five of us who were in that party were together all afternoon. Nobody was drinking, nobody was under the influence.
"A beer", eh? Could it have been one of those "ice" beers with increased alcohol content? Perhaps even a 40 of King Cobra could be called "a beer" under the right circumstances.
And, thinking ahead, Peggy Noonan offers "Hit Refresh: Why Bush may be thinking about replacing Cheney".
To save time, and since nearly every other message at DUmmieland is about Dick Cheney shooting Harry Whittington, so let's mine their collective intelligence for clues.
First up, there are a couple prior pictures of Cheney hunting here and here. Notice anything about those pictures that might cast doubt on part of Cheney's explanation? Yes, that's right, he's wearing ear protection. One DUmmie supposes that the Secret Service probably is in contact with him through those earphones and could have broadcast something such as, "Harry is walking behind you".
And, "The Swiss Miss...the VP... & UBS Enron?" tries to find links between the various members of the hunting party.
See also "Poll question: How big of "a Beer" did Cheney Consume at lunch?"
There are penetration test for shotgun loads here. That would tend to cast a bit of doubt on how such small pellets fired from such a (stated) distance could cause such penetration.
Another angle involves "Funeralgate", a Texas scandal apparently involving the Bush Gang and Whittington. See also this and this.
And, a public defender in New Hampshire offers obsessive coverage including raising the possibility that Cheney engaged in felony witness tampering and questioning the time of the accident.
I wondered about the sunny/dusk discrepancy earlier.
Posted to Politics at 11:11 PM | Comments (1)
Businesses worried about being sued for hiring illegal aliens
From this:Employers who hire illegal immigrants to depress wages have something new to fear: Employees who use racketeering laws to take them to court.
A law originally conceived to hammer the Mafia – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute – is now being swung against employers at chicken-plucking plants, apple orchards and janitorial firms.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a Georgia racketeering case involving carpet giant Mohawk Industries Inc., its employment practices and allegations that it used labor recruiters in Brownsville.
The case is being closely watched by many employment law specialists – particularly in areas such as North Texas with large illegal immigrant populations – because it could trigger a rash of costly suits against businesses that depend on illegal labor.
A handful of similar suits have already been filed under RICO, and last month a judge approved a $1.3 million settlement in one of them...
Because so many of the RICO suits are brought in areas that hire large numbers of Hispanics, [Mohawk attorney Juan Morillo] said the issue should be of concern to the Hispanic community as a whole...
...The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a brief in support of Mohawk. So did Associated Builders & Contractors, a powerful trade group.
"This case is about RICO, which was initially used to go after the mob, and now it is being expanded by smart plaintiff lawyers to go after employers who have nothing to do with the mob," said Amar Sarwal, general counsel of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the public policy law firm of the U.S. Chamber...
Posted to Immigration at 11:07 AM | Comments (5)
Waving Mexican flags on America's Independence Mall
Independence Mall in Philadelphia - home of the Liberty Bell and of Independence Hall - was home to quite a spectacle yesterday as 1000 illegal aliens and their supporters marched against HR4437. Some of them were waving large Mexican flags. You can see a few pictures of the protest here (including the one to the right), and read a report from the local paper here.
This was part of the "Day Without an Immigrant" protest. Illegal aliens were asked to not go to their work at Philly's restaurants. An earlier article made clear that many Philly restaurants knowingly employ illegal aliens. It also contained a damning quote from the National Restaurant Association.
Realistically speaking, we only have two choices in this matter:
1. Give illegal aliens an amnesty or a "guest" worker scheme of some kind. (Or, leave things as they are). Those forces who support illegal immigration will still be out there, and they'll even have more power than before. And, they'll continue to support illegal immigration that occurs as a result of the amnesty. Expect to see more protests of this kind until illegal aliens are given almost all the rights of American citizens. Expect to see hostile foreign governments gaining more and more power inside our country and perhaps even agitating their citizens inside our country.
2. Completely oppose those forces who support illegal immigration. That includes those corrupt politicians who for one reason or another support illegal immigration.
With the second option, prices might rise. Would you rather pay a bit more at local restaurants, or would you rather have foreign citizens who are here illegally wave their flags on Independence Mall?
Posted to Immigration at 05:53 AM | Comments (15)
Beer at the Dick Cheney quail shooting party?
Were alcoholic beverages available at the meal prior to the Dick Cheney hunting incident? Were Cheney, Harry Whittington, or others in their party drinking?
The "NBC Investigative Unit" report "Cheney's hunting host lobbied White House" originally contained this paragraph:
[Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong] also told NBC News that she does not believe alcohol was involved in the accident. She says she believes no one that day was drinking, although she says there may have been beer available during a picnic lunch that preceded the incident. "There may be a beer or two in there," she said, "but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."
That paragraph has since been removed...
Apparently she said this during a telephone interview. I can think of absolutely no reason to remove that paragraph, since the article was probably reviewed by an editor who listened to the (presumably taped) interview before it was published to the web.
There's a screengrab of the original version here, and more links here. The DUmmies discovered this.
UPDATE: Please contribute news about this incident to the new site TheQuailHunter.com Anyone can register to post entries.
Posted to Politics at 01:33 AM | Comments (4)
Where will the Bush administration move if the worst happens?
If - God forbid - Harry Whittington shouldn't pull through or suffers a lasting disability, what will happen to the Bush administration?
There's a good chance that Dick Cheney will resign. Of course, you never know, and he might decide to stick around.
If he does resign, perhaps Bush will try to get Jeb, "P", or even Daddy to replace him. The first two for on-the-job training, the last for an experienced hand in times of continual crisis.
Another alternative is that the entire Bush administration - including all family members - will decide to leave the U.S. They could still continue to run the U.S. via a videophone link-up from Mexico, Brazil, or some friendly Mideast country like the UAE. One day their domestic staff will wake up and realize that they've flown the coop during the night.
I'm betting on the latter being the most realistic scenario.
Posted to Miscellania at 10:17 PM | Comments (2)
Is Harry Whittington still alive? Plus, Field & Stream
Just morbidly blue-skying a bit, the question arises whether Harry Whittington is still alive or not.Of course, you wouldn't expect a whole hospital to be in on the game, but then again there's probably only a limited number of people who have seen him.
Of course, if this were a mystery novel or something, the kicker might be that the man in the hospital is still alive, but he's not Harry Whittington. In that case, the real victim died in that Texas field, and someone else agreed to take a shot for Dick Cheney. The hospital staff are being told that he's Harry Whittington, when in fact he's just someone else.
I'm just blue-skying, I said! However, feel free to post something like that to DU or DK if you have an account there. Just for fun.
Meanwhile, a Field & Stream contributing editor offers:
Reports from the owner of the ranch where the VP was hunting that Whittington violated some sort of ``Texas protocol'' requiring hunters to make formal announcement of their comings and goings in the field were a bit misleading. Everywhere that upland birds are hunted, the drill is pretty much the same. It makes sense to let other hunters know when you're moving to the left or right, or that you're back after visiting a nearby tree, but there's no requirement to do so. The onus is on everyone who carries a gun not to shoot at anyone else.Also, Slate has some thoughts:
Cheney shot another hunter. Sooner better than later, he should own up to his mistake.
If there is anything that Harry's friends at the Vaughn Building are angry about, it is not the shooting itself but the attempt by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to place the blame on the victim. It's the shooter's duty to know what he is shooting at and where his companions are. A shooting accident is always the fault of the shooter. Always.Tags: Dick Cheney, Cheney
Posted to Politics at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
Some Philadelphia illegal aliens threaten to strike restaurants that illegally employ them
Illegal aliens working in Philly restaurants are being asked to stay home today. The goal is to show the power of Mexican citizens illegally living inside our country and show opposition to HR4437.Let's hope it works. It could even work doubly good if they don't show up, are fired, and then are able to sue. That would raise the cost of those restaurants' labor and encourage other restaurants to employ legal workers, buy dishwashing machines, conduct outreaches to American teenagers, etc.
Illegal immigrants in the Philadelphia labor force - described by one Center City restaurateur as the "dirty little secret" of his industry - want to make themselves seen, heard and missed on Valentine's Day.The writer goes on to discuss various restaurants that knowingly employ illegal aliens, none of which wanted to be identified.
Local activists have urged undocumented workers throughout the region, particularly Mexicans who staff the city's restaurants, to strike on Tuesday, one of the biggest dining days of the year.
Organizers say the work stoppage, by a population typically on tiptoe, is to demonstrate the economic contribution of undocumented "shadow workers" and to protest a bill in Congress that would make illegal immigration a felony punishable by prison time.
"The call is to the employers, to make them realize they have a stake, and that they need to weigh in," said Ricardo Diaz, the independent organizer who sparked the effort.
Advocates for illegal immigrants around the country have toyed with the idea of a real-world staging of A Day Without a Mexican, a 2004 feature film about the impact on California when its Latino residents disappear...
Another part of this article was discussed in "National Restaurant Association and illegal immigration".
Posted to Immigration at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)
Did Dick Cheney shoot Whittington at dusk... or earlier?
From the LAT:...The party of 11 hunters set out in two trucks Saturday morning, driving around the mesquite-dotted property and shooting quail until about 12:30 p.m., said Anne Armstrong, co-owner of the ranch. Then they broke for a lunch of antelope, jicama salad and camp bread, washed down with Dr. Pepper.Now, see the second page of the official Texas preliminary report, specifically 'lighting' in section VI. It has a checkbox for 'Dusk', but that's not checked. Instead, 'Sunny' is checked.
After lunch, the group split up. Cheney, Whittington and Pamela Pitzer Willeford, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, went with two of Armstrong's daughters and pursued quail for several more hours. It was at dusk that Whittington shot a bird and went to retrieve it, taking him behind the vice president.
The medical team that travels with Cheney immediately began ministering to Whittington, who was bleeding profusely from wounds to his face, neck and chest, witnesses said. They packed Whittington into Cheney's ambulance and drove him to a hospital...
Note also the enumeration of the items they had at lunch. If I wanted to stress that no one was drinking - especially if they were - I'd say they were drinking something like... well, in Texas you drink Dr. Pepper, don't you? Then, I'd hide that mention of what they were drinking in a full menu...
And, from a less-than-credible and very far-left source comes this:
WMR has learned that this incident is not the first involving Cheney and hunting accidents. According to informed sources on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, two years ago Cheney was shooting at ducks from a duck blind in Trappe, a Maryland Eastern shore town where former Secretary of State James Baker III maintains a residence. The sources reveal that Cheney nearly accidentally shot half of his hunting party and Secret Service detail. Eyewitnesses to the Maryland duck hunting incident claim that Cheney is "trigger happy" and a "maniac with a gun."Tags: Dick Cheney, Cheney
Posted to Politics at 01:40 PM | Comments (2)
Does Fabian Nunez represent the U.S. or Mexico?
On Saturday, a group of pro-illegal immigration activists held a confab in Riverside. As previously discussed, it was organized by UCR professor Armando Navarro, and those speaking included California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (via a taped message) and a senator from a Mexican state. From the Lou Dobbs transcript:DOBBS: Tonight, this nation's open border movement has found itself some new friends. These border security opponents joined forces this weekend with their Mexican government counterparts at a rally in California. They even won the support of a high-ranking Mexican government official who decided to make the trip across the border.The video of this segment is in this WMV file. Can there be any doubt which side Fabian Nunez is on? Until such time as the Democratic Party disassociates themselves with him, shouldn't we assume that they share his views?
...CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Latino groups from both sides of the U.S. Mexico border held a summit to demonstrate opposition to the Sensenbrenner security border security legislation. Organizer Armando Navarro began by quoting Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, prediction a socialist revolution stretching from the tip of South America to northern Canada.
Then came a procession of open borders activists, including the Brown Berets and MEChA, the radical Latino college group that advocates returning the American Southwest to Mexico. "We are a community without borders," says this Chicago activist.
There were signs proclaiming North America a stolen continent and saying all of those of European descent here are the real illegal aliens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not their land. This is not their continent. This is our continent.
WIAN: Even the conference program said it was being held in Riverside California, Aztlan, the name given to the American Southwest by those who claim it rightfully belongs to Mexico. So it was no surprise that Mexican state senator Raymundo Cardenas attended to demonstrate Mexico's opposition to the Sensenbrenner bill...
...FABIEN NUNEZ, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY SPEAKER: I'm honored to fight against the Sensenbrenner approach to immigration policy. This legislation is a flashback to those failed polarizing policies of the past...
Posted to California at 01:20 PM | Comments (3)
National Restaurant Association and illegal immigration
The National Restaurant Association is a very large trade group for restaurant owners, and they as much as admit that some of their members are employing illegal aliens. And, as "Illegal immigrants: 'Dirty little secret' of restaurant world" makes clear, many restaurants know that they are engaging in illegally activity. And, that's something that the NRA seems to support:...Undocumented workers are so essential to the food industry nationwide that the National Restaurant Association has made stopping the Sensenbrenner-King bill its top priority in Congress this year.Here's an overview of contributions by restaurants and bars to politicians. For the 2006 cycle, the NRA has donated almost half a million dollars to various politicians and groups, 90% of it to the GOP. In fact, in the 2004 cycle they gave over a million, and they've even got their own page.
"We value the work done by our employees, documented or not," said John Gay, the group's chief of government affairs and public policy in Washington.
"It's not like they broke into the bank to rob it," said Gay. "They broke into the bank to sweep the floor."
When an association as much as admits that some of its members are engaging in illegal activity, and when they give money to politicians and when politicians like George Bush look the other way on enforcing the laws being broken, what do we normally call that?
Maybe the Philly Inquirer should look into that.
Posted to Immigration at 11:36 AM | Comments (3)
Cheney shooting victim has minor heart attack
Now breaking...
Posted to Miscellania at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Dave Frohnmayer, U of Oregon collaborate with Mexican government
On Saturday, the Mexican government held a "Carousel of Information" at the HEP Building on the campus of the University of Oregon. This was yet another mobile consulate affair where they presumably passed out Matricula Consular ID cards to a presumably largely illegal crowd.
Thankfully, the American side protested this, and a large number of reports are here and starting here. Both sites have pictures, but both of their reports are a bit non-journalistic so to speak. For the more polished version - complete with "liberal" bias - try this. It includes this incredibly ironic and creepy para:
But Angel Lopez, legal adviser for the Mexican consular, said he felt the protesters were interfering with the legitimate business affairs of a foreign government. He said the event deserved tighter security by federal marshals to ensure order.
I'm sure Jorge Arbusto will be right on it, senor.
Dave Frohnmayer is the President of the University of Oregon. I contacted his spokesman and she tried to excuse this by saying that they were just the rental agents. Informing that spokesman that campus security was apparently deployed at the event seemed to take her back a bit. And, she couldn't say whether the president will be issuing a statement about whether he supports a foreign government using public property to hand out ID cards to illegal aliens.
Please contact Dave Frohnmayer and ask him yourself. If you're a student there, attend events where he answers questions and ask him. And, if you're an alumni, contact your association.
A PDF of a past "Carousel" is here. Note that many Oregon state agencies are included, and they discuss not only ITIN numbers (SSN equivalents usually associated with illegal aliens) and registering to vote. (Note however that different audience could be intended for both sets of information, so there's no proof they intended to register illegal aliens.)
Posted to Immigration at 02:18 PM | Comments (2)
Colorado Democrats kinda getting serious about illegal immigration
From this:[Colorado] Democrats are wading into traditionally Republican territory - the issue of illegal immigration. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said Democrats are drafting six bills that will be introduced next week. Describing the current immigration system as "broken," Romanoff said he wants a "bipartisan solution" and he expects the General Assembly to pass immigration bills from both sides of the aisle.Of course, there's the possibility he just sees how upset most people are and he's trying to craft a "Democrat-friendly" solution.
Among other things, bills by Democrats would require - if financially possible - local law enforcement to notify immigration officials if they are detaining illegal immigrants, commission a study on the effect of illegal immigration on the state economy and urge Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill."Comprehensive" is usually code for "a massive amnesty".
Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, is drafting a bill that would punish businesses that contract with people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.Presumably they would already be protected from harrasment. Perhaps he's trying to prevent demonstrations by the Minuteman Project and the like. Remember: Gil Cedillo tried to make illegal aliens a protected class under the Unruh Act.
Romanoff said he plans to introduce a bill that would change civil rights laws to protect legal immigrants from harassment.
Three Democrats also are leading the push for a ballot initiative, first introduced in 2003 by anti-immigrant crusader U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo. It would bar illegal immigrants from receiving state or local government services other than those required by federal law.That's good to know, you idiot.
Romanoff wants the state "to lead by example" and not give contracts to firms that knowingly employ illegal immigrants. That's why he expects bipartisan support for a bill proposed by Rep. Bill Crane, R-Arvada, which includes that language. He said Democrats may also support other Republican bills.
Crane said he is glad to hear about Democratic support.
"I don't think (Democrats are) trying to steal our thunder," Crane said. "I think the citizens of Colorado have spoken about this issue and we need to, as a body, react to the problems."
Political experts say Democrats feel compelled to deal with illegal immigration, but face the dilemma of crafting solutions that don't alienate their constituents. [They mean illegal aliens -- LW]
The illegal immigration issue "seems to have just exploded on the agenda this year," said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University. "There are an awful lot of people out there, not just the lily whites among us, who are concerned about" this problem.
Posted to Immigration at 06:37 AM | Comments (2)
AFT's NCLB Show and Sing-a-Long mesmerized me
The American Federation of Teachers has developed a nifty technique to discuss their problems with No Child Left Behind: create a creepy Flash animation that's so hideous that bloggers will have no choice but to link to it. Think they'll add this post to their reviews post?
Posted to Politics at 03:04 AM | Comments (0)
David Brooks: liberal bloggers are "semi-nuts"
Speaking on the Chris Matthews show, the NYT's David Brooks said the following:
Whoever the Democratic candidate, that is the weakness of the Democratic party, they’ve got the blogs and the netroots who are semi-nuts and they insist on a Stalinist line of discipline.
Obviously, that's completely false. Liberal bloggers are completely nuts.
Posted to Bloggage at 11:11 PM | Comments (1)
Should Georgia Sen. Sam Zamarripa recuse himself on illegal immigration votes?
Georgia state Senator Sam Zamarripa is a tireless supporter of illegal immigration into that state. A letter from activist D.A. King to the Secretary of the GA Senate wonders whether he should recuse himself on certain votes:...Citing section 1-4.3 of the Rules of the Georgia State Senate dealing with conflict of interest, I am hereby requesting that the senator from the 36th district, Sam Zamarripa, be prohibited from voting on any pending or future legislation regarding illegal immigration in the current legislative session.I don't know what they'll do in this case, but see "Mexican agents in the state houses? Part 2" for how they handled a similar matter.
It is a matter of public record that senator Zamarripa is a founding partner of a Georgia – based, federally chartered bank, United Americas Bank [aka Banco Unido], where he also holds the position of Director of Marketing.
It is also a matter of public record that United Americas Bank is currently active in soliciting and accepting business from, and making mortgage loans to, persons it and Senator Zamarrpia know to be present in the United States illegally...
Posted to Immigration at 06:27 PM | Comments (1)
Croatian Olympics Babe of the Day
Today's Croatian Olympics Babe of the Day is Maja Kezele of Croatia. Unfortunately, she recently finished last in the women's 15-km pursuit in something or other, but she finishes first in our hearts today.
Posted to Celebrities at 02:56 PM | Comments (2)
Pikes Peak Library District collaborates with Mexico on illegal immigration
On Saturday, the Pikes Peak Library District allowed the Mexican consulate to use a room at their Sand Creek branch to pass out Matricula Consular ID cards to Mexican citizens, many or most of whom were here illegally. And, those ID cards enable those illegal aliens to live and work here much more easily than they could otherwise.
The Pikes Peak Library District is indirectly supporting illegal immigration. If the Bush administration were not completely corrupt they would look into whether they had broken federal law.
There's a report with pictures from the protest against the event here. It includes the contact information for the library. A short local news report is here.
Previously: "Is the Pikes Peak Library District breaking federal law?"
Posted to Immigration at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)
Is the future of libertarianism at sea?
The California Libertarian Party will be conducting its next convention on a three day (actually, four day, but play along) cruise on the Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas. It will feature the Vice President of the Reason Foundation.
Could the future of libertarianism be at sea? Specifically, in international waters?
Recall the company SeaCode, which wants to house foreign programming talent on a ship off of San Diego: cheap labor, but with proximity to clients.
Could the LP try something similar? Perhaps establishing their own country on the open seas?
Or, perhaps they could set sail for a desert island and establish their own society based on libertarian principles. There's a good chance it wouldn't end up like Lord of the Flies.
The LP isn't going to win any elections, so it's time for dramatic steps. I encourage all Libertarians, contributors to Reason, and fellow travelers to get on board and make a stand.
Posted to Politics at 11:54 AM | Comments (1)
Utah: Illegal aliens worked at top-secret WMD facility
The Dugway Proving Ground in Utah is a top-secret base where the U.S. Army does research into biological and chemical weapon defense. Nine illegal aliens were caught working there recently.
"Just by saying you're working for a subcontractor, you can access one of the most highly top secret installations in the country, dealing with weapons of mass destruction," [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Adam Parks] said. "Once inside the perimeter, they had their identification and would go to work, not monitored. They didn't have an escort or anything like that."
The workers - no doubt good-hearted - were employed by Spacecon West and aren't suspected of having links to terrorists. However, in 2004 Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) reported that Al Qaeda-related terrorists - disguised as Mexicans - are crossing illegally into the U.S. FBI Director Robert Mueller has also discussed this matter. Many more possible infiltrations discussed here.
On the rare occasions when the Dems discuss our "homeland security" president failing to keep the homeland secure, they inevitably mention port security, but they intentionally avoid discussing border security. Obviously, they should change their mind and discuss this. They probably won't, since they're just as corrupt as the GOP leadership.
Posted to Immigration_terror at 06:24 AM | Comments (3)
Fabian Nunez, Mexican Senator to speak against HR4437
On Saturday, "latino and immigrant-rights advocates" will meet in Riverside to oppose HR 4437. The confab is organized by Armando Navarro from the National Alliance for Human Rights, and one of the speakers is Mexican Sen. Reymundo Cardenas, representing the state of Zacatecas.Representing the state of California (still apparently part of the U.S.), will be Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. His appearance will be pre-recorded.
Can anyone say with absolute certainty that Nunez is on the American side in this matter?
As a side note, about half of Zacatecas' population lives in the U.S.
UPDATE: About 550 people showed up:
Armando Navarro, professor of ethnic studies at UCR and coordinator of Saturday's summit, said the alliance is working on a two-point plan focusing on leaders in America, Mexico, and Central and South American countries. A delegation may go to Mexico in the next three weeks to meet with President Vicente Fox, members of Congress and ambassadors from other countries to solicit support against the bill, he said.
"If they come out openly and protest, that would influence the Senate because it would create a diplomatic problem for the Bush administration," Navarro said. "Basically we as Mexicanos and Latinos are facing what some of us describe as literally a political war."
...A 50-member group called Comite Latino is planning a human chain today to stretch from Coachella to the Palm Springs office of Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs. A rally is scheduled for March 25 in Los Angeles.
On Monday, Gustavo Ramirez of Pomona will join other residents to encourage council members to pass an ordinance prohibiting police from enforcing immigration laws if the Sensenbrenner bill passes. Similar ordinances have been approved in Maywood and Huntington Park.
Maywood Mayor Felipe Aguirre told the audience Saturday that his council saw the legislation as an attack against the people of Maywood.
"We had to say something. We had to make the strong effort not just to oppose the bill but to make our city a sanctuary for immigrants," Aguirre said.
The Maywood ordinance states that the city police will not cooperate with the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services even if the Sensenbrenner bill passes, he said...
Posted to Immigration at 11:31 AM | Comments (4)
"United States to deploy high-tech security gadgets on Canada's border"
WASHINGTON (CP) - The United States will deploy high-tech safety measures at the Canadian border, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who suggested a security wall would only make sense if a lot of people were sneaking into the country from a big city.It's a bit unclear exactly what he's proposing and what he supports. As if it mattered.
Chertoff said he has no knowledge of any problem like that. But he didn't entirely discount the notion Thursday of a northern security fence, an idea condemned as ridiculous by business groups and dismissed as impractical by the previous Canadian government.
Some U.S. legislators are intent on studying the issue and slipped the plan into a border security bill that would expand a barrier along the Mexican border, which is plagued by increasing violence, drug-runners and the arrival of more than one million illegal immigrants a year...
Posted to Immigration at 06:52 AM | Comments (3)
VA Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. wants to take discounted college tuition from U.S. citizens
RICHMOND, Feb. 9 -- A senator who wanted to prevent all illegal immigrants in Virginia from getting the residents' tuition break at state universities changed his mind and on Thursday proposed the first legal avenue for some to pay the reduced fee.Once again: every discounted college education given to an illegal alien is one less given to a U.S. citizen. Was Hanger able to figure that out? Or, did he figure it out and he didn't care? Either way, perhaps he should seek other work.
Swayed by immigrant advocates and his own experiences, Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R-Augusta) amended his bill to offer the lower, in-state tuition to undocumented students who are pursuing legal residency, who graduated from a Virginia high school and whose families have paid income taxes for at least three years.
"It's not like they just showed up today," he said of such students. "They've been in the school systems, and they've been good role models. They just lack appropriate documentation. This can be an incentive to help them."
Posted to Immigration at 03:47 AM | Comments (6)
Iowa Democrats oppose illegal immigration?
The weakest spot of the Bush administration and of the GOP leadership is their support for illegal immigration. Perhaps the Dems have finally realized that:DES MOINES, IA - Legislative Democrats today are calling for steps to curb illegal immigration by holding corporate executives and employees accountable for hiring undocumented workers in Iowa.
A proposal backed by Democrats in the House and Senate seeks to impose fines and possible jail time for corporate leaders engage in unfair business practices aimed at exploiting cheap labor...
Legislative Democrats also are seeking to shut off state assistance, economic development grants or tax cuts to corporations proven to have hired illegal, undocumented workers.
Posted to Politics at 06:53 PM | Comments (3)
"Reid Aided Abramoff Clients, Records Show"
If you're going to talk about a "Culture of Corruption", it would help not to be dingy yourself:Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.
The activities _ detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press _ are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.
Reid's office acknowledged Thursday having "routine contacts" with Abramoff's lobbying partners and intervening on some government matters _ such as blocking some tribal casinos _ in ways Abramoff's clients might have deemed helpful. But it said none of his actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff...
Posted to Politics at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)
CPAC, immigration, and not yet clued-in bloggers: Part 2
Last year at this time, I posted "Tamar Jacoby, CPAC, immigration, and not yet clued-in bloggers" about the Conservative Political Action Conference. Apparently Tamar couldn't make this year's festivities. However, showing that they haven't learned, there's a new crop of not-yet-clued-in posts.
BoiFromTroy offers "Conservative's New Immigration Lexicon". He plays the mass deportations strawman, alludes to Propostion 187, and confuses "immigration" with "illegal immigration", then:
The message that we should treat immigrants as human beings with dignity and personhood goes in contrast to the remedy that conservatives propose. There is no dignity in militarizing our borders and no respect of personhood when the best you can offer is "go home."
Then apparently laws forbidding, say, trespassing have no dignity. With dignity comes responsibility: there's a right way and a wrong way. If you choose the wrong way, then you should go home. That's better than the "liberal" solution of treating illegal aliens as if they were retarded.
The usual suspect Ryan Sager (featured in last year's post) offers his usual "libertarian" ideas here, and I encourage you to leave comments taking him to task.
As before, the American "Mind" has thoughts.
There's a list of other bloggers here. Please take some time and clue them in as necessary.
Tag: cpac
Posted to Immigration at 01:56 PM | Comments (1)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR) makes some sense on guest worker schemes
That U.S. Rep. voted for HR4437 and - surprisingly for a Democrat - he makes some sense in "Amnesty won't fix immigration woes":America has a proud heritage as a beacon for the dispossessed and oppressed, who come from around the world for a shot at achieving their dreams.
However, a nation that does not control its own borders is not secure. We need to know who is coming into our country, and we must keep out people who are not authorized to enter. With 500,000 or more people entering illegally every year, the status quo is not acceptable...
...I am not convinced there is a labor shortage that requires the importation of 550,000 or more guest workers every year, as envisioned by the immigration reform bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. - which also allows family members to come along, doubling or tripling the number of new arrivals. Only after improving wages and working conditions and proving that no Americans are available for the job should an employer be able to recruit guest workers.
I am concerned that guest worker proposals will continue to erode the wages and working conditions of tens of millions of Americans and legal immigrants. The Commission on Immigration Reform, created in 1995 by President Bill Clinton, reported, "Guest worker programs have depressed wages" and reduced employment opportunities for "unskilled American workers, including recent immigrants," who can be easily "displaced by newly entering guest workers."
Other studies, including research by the National Research Council and the liberal Economic Policy Institute, show immigrants under guest worker programs are paid 15 percent to 33 percent less than U.S. citizens, even in highly skilled jobs, driving down wages for all workers.
All workers deserve the protection of labor laws. In fact, existing guest worker programs already nominally provide such protections, but they are not enforced. The lack of enforcement has reached crisis proportions. I don't believe that will magically change under a new guest worker program...
Posted to Immigration at 06:45 AM | Comments (1)
Does Rep. Tim Toomey care about American college students?
Massachusetts state Representative Tim Toomey - a proud Democrat - writes a column to all those who opposed his efforts to give citizens of other countries discounted college educations unavailable to some of his fellow American citizens: "In-state tuition bill opponents misguided":In the weeks since An Act Relative to In-State Tuition Rates and Fees at Public Higher Education Facilities (S764/H1230) was defeated, my office has received a steady stream of phone calls, e-mails and letters in regards to that highly publicized bill. While I am grateful to the numerous people who contacted me and thanked me for supporting it, I would like to respond to those who opposed the bill and celebrated its defeat.What a nice rhetorical flourish! Note, of course, that he's portraying all who opposed this anti-American bill as showing contempt.
Your celebration is misguided, your cause shortsighted and your gleeful contempt for the people affected by this legislation startling.
The defeat of this bill did nothing to stem the tide of undocumented immigrants to this country.It probably did some good towards dissuading illegal aliens from bringing their teenage children to Toomey's state expecting to get discounted college educations though.
But it did deny several hundred young people the chance topay $9,000 a year to attend a Massachusetts public university... many of those students will now be unable to afford the $18,000 out-of-state tuition rate and will not attend college.That's one of those unfortunate choices that illegal immigration presents us with. In fact, if there were no supporters of illegal immigration like Rep. Toomey, then we wouldn't have to make this choice.
See, there's a choice involved. There are only so many discounted college eductions available. And, every discounted education that's given to an illegal alien represents one that does not go to a U.S. citizen. (See the example in "Holly Mullen of Salt Lake Tribune can't think things through").
Would you be better served by a generation of employable, tax-paying, highly skilled college graduates, even if they were undocumented immigrantsIllegal aliens are not "employable", at least to those employers who follow the law.
or would you be better served by a generation of undocumented immigrants, unable to attend college, unable to find a job paying a living-wage, forced to depend on the state?Those illegal aliens are citizens of other countries, and as such are able to obtain discounted college educations from their countries.
Numerous organizations, including the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, stated repeatedly that the in-state tuition bill would have no effect on the admissions prospects of qualified citizen applicants.Apparently they also live in a fantasy world where there's always more discounted college educations than applicants for those discounts.
Plus, these students would not be the first non-Massachusetts' citizens to get a financial break at our state colleges and universities. Students from the five other New England states pay only $857 more than Massachusetts' residents, so in essence your tax dollars are already being used to subsidize noncitizen students.I think the Rep. misunderstands basic American concepts like citizenship and he clearly puts the interests of foreign citizens ahead of the interests of his fellow American citizens. Based on that, the various statements in this column, and his support for such an explicitly anti-American bill, I wonder whether he's really qualified for his job.
Please write him and let him know what you think.
Posted to Immigration at 03:03 AM | Comments (2)
Ted McDonough of Salt Lake City Weekly unfamiliar with U.S. citizenship concept
That person apparently writes "Hits & Misses" for that rag, and he offers a "Miss: Hypocrisy Parade":
It's unfair for undocumented Mexican immigrants to pay in-state college tuition when law-abiding children from other states have to pay higher prices. So went the argument as Utah's House Education Committee gave the thumbs up to reversing a law that now lets undocumented high school graduates pay in-state university tuition rates. The other shoe dropped later when the House, by a vote of 73 to 1, passed a bill to more than double tuition-waver scholarships that will give in-state tuition to out-of-state students. A contradiction? Not at all. The second bill is aimed at attracting students from southern Idaho to Utah State University. It isn't that Utah lawmakers don't want foreigners attending our schools, they just want our kind of foreigners.
Dear Ted: Those "foreigners" are actually your fellow U.S. citizens. If you support illegal aliens - who are citizens of another country - over your own fellow citizens, could you please make it official and renounce your American citizenship? Thanks in advance for your assistance with this matter.
Closely related: "Holly Mullen of Salt Lake Tribune can't think things through".
Posted to Immigration at 01:26 PM | Comments (3)
"Cardinal Mahoney initiates immigrant rights campaign"
And what better place to read the news than at this most appropriate site?Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who heads the Los Angeles archdiocese, attacked House Resolution 4437 as "a new attack on immigrants [and] a very malicious bill that imposes restrictions and penalties on immigrants [and also] those who offer them any kind of assistance."Those two organizations are at:
...The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops is participating in the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which includes hundred of labor, civil rights, faith, community and business groups, that has opposes HR 4437 and supports legislation that would provide legalization of undocumented workers. In May of 2005 the bishops established an official campaign, Justice for Immigrants, to educate and mobilize its constituencies and the general public regarding the rights of immigrants’ rights and legislative reform.
justiceforimmigrants.org
cirnow.org/content/en/about_ccir.htm
All of those groups would seem to be far-left, and at least one of them (CHIRLA) is alleged to have links to the Mexican government. The good Cardinal is in good company.
Posted to Immigration at 06:29 AM | Comments (7)
Six Against America
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — Democrats are heading into this year's elections in a position weaker than they had hoped for, party leaders say, stirring concern that they are letting pass an opportunity to exploit what they see as widespread Republican vulnerabilities...
Etc. etc. etc. Perhaps if the Dems want to score points against Bush, improve the opinion many Americans have of them, and help their country, they might consider opposing Bush's plans to flood the U.S. with cheap labor rather than supporting it as they do now. Just a thought.
Posted to Politics at 11:03 PM | Comments (1)
Cartoon from 3/22/03 "peace" protest
With all the talk of "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muslim cartoon" it's slightly worth observing the above poster which was a proud part of a 3/22/03 "peace" protest in Hollywood.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 03:48 PM | Comments (3)
Is the Pikes Peak Library District breaking federal law?
The Pikes Peak Library District will be allowing the Mexican consulate to give out Matricula Consular cards and other services at its Sand Creek branch on Saturday Feb 11.
Knowing that many of those receiving these cards will be illegal aliens, and they will use those cards to stay in the U.S., is that district violating federal law? Let's turn to 8 U.S.C. 1324.
Whether they're breaking the law or not, one thing is clear: they're helping a foreign government with their agenda of sending us illegal aliens in exchange for the money they send home. No public agency should do that.
Sid Stanfill is the Branch Manager of the Sand Creek library and you can contact him with this form or at 719-597-7070. Also contact the Executive Director using this form.
Posted to Immigration_consul at 02:40 PM | Comments (1)
Dallas school board wants to hire illegal aliens; LULAC connection
Dallas Independent School District trustee Joe May wants to hire bilingual teachers who are here illegally. And, some other members of the DISD board think it's a good idea, just as long as it's handled delicately.On the one hand, it would be good if they went through with this and then the feds stepped in and arrested them.
But, rather than waiting for that to happen, I'd suggest supporting a recall effort for all the board members who aren't vehemently opposed to this. Based on the news reports, it doesn't seem like any of them are:
Some Dallas Independent School District trustees said they look forward to discussing the issue while others are treading cautiously. The district's attorneys will also participate in the discussion at today's meeting.What I'm wondering is whether May is an American or something else. Note that he was behind the vote requiring administrators to learn Spanish: "Responding to Dallas giving in to racial power".
"I'm open to listening to the legal points they might make," trustee Hollis Brashear said. "But I don't know if we can discuss something that involves not complying with U.S. law."
Trustee Jerome Garza said it's an interesting topic that should be discussed.
"We as trustees can no longer solve problems like we did 10 years ago," Mr. Garza said. "We have to be innovative."
...DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said Mr. May's kind of grass-roots effort is how laws are changed. He said the hiring proposal is something he could support as long as it's done legally.
Dr. Hinojosa said he empathizes with young children who enter the U.S. illegally with their parents and find their job prospects limited in adulthood.
"It wasn't their fault they were brought here," Dr. Hinojosa said. "Their parents brought them."
...But Joe Campos, executive manager of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said DISD should push to get the residency requirement waived.
"They can be good productive citizens," Mr. Campos said. "Why not give them the opportunity?"
Mr. May believes it's time to change laws to address illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years.
"They're basically American people when you get down to it," he said.
And, from Joe May's bio:
Mr. May is a business opportunity specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration, where he has been employed since 1980... From 1973 to 1980, Mr. May worked as an investigator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission... Mr. May's history of community service in the Dallas community includes two terms as president of the League of United Latin American Citizens and as board member of Operation SER-Jobs for Progress.The LULAC connection explains so much, doesn't it? Hopefully someone will start a recall campaign before he does any more damage.
Please call Superintendent Hinojosa at (972) 925-3700. You can contact the board here. UPDATE: This article has this drole bit:
One board member asked about possible penalties if the board were to hire illegal immigrants, NBC 5 reported. The board's attorney said the penalty would be a sentence up to six months in federal prison.
Posted to Immigration at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)
Sen. Gil Cedillo: even more discounts for illegal aliens
California State Senator Gil Cedillo - nicknamed "One Bill Gil" because he keeps introducing bills trying to give illegal aliens drivers licenses - has a new trick: giving additional financial aid to illegal alien college students. The following is from 1/30/06 and was written by the California GOP, but since their site doesn't work too well this is the link:Democrats in the state legislature have had a busy year so far. They have tried to keep the punishment for a person possessing 24 items of child pornography from qualifying as a felony, they have produced legislation to put a moratorium on the death penalty, and "One Bill Gil" re-introduced his pet bill to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Senator Cedillo must have decided it was time to go for a new nickname, because today his legislation to give Cal Grants to illegal immigrants, SB 160, passed in the Senate 23-12.
Senator Cedillo's bill allows for illegal immigrants attending California colleges and universities to qualify to receive Cal Grants and other state financial aid as permitted by federal law. This could increase the cost of providing student financial aid by millions of dollars every year. Over time, the state would be responsible for an additional annual cost in the low ten millions as the number of eligible applicants increases and the maximum Cal Grant award rises.
There are already pending lawsuits over the fact that current state law allows for illegal immigrants to pay the lower in-state resident tuition when attending public colleges and universities that is not offered to legal citizens of out-of-state residents. Senator Cedillo's bill is likely to spark additional litigation and force taxpayers to pay for the defense of this inexcusable law...
Posted to Immigration at 09:05 AM | Comments (5)
Ambassador Hotel artifacts for sale
There appear to be various artifacts from Los Angeles' landmark Ambassador Hotel available from eBay. I don't know which ones of them were legally obtained and which were not, so caveat emptor. Items available include postcards, mugs, and even piano keys.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 05:23 AM | Comments (2)
Bush budget: more for border patrol, none to jail illegal aliens
From this:For the third straight year, President Bush has proposed eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in federal reimbursements to states to help with the cost of jailing illegal immigrants who commit crimes. California is the top beneficiary of the program.The reimbursement program is called SCAAP ("State Criminal Alien Assistance Program"). See "Feds paid $2 billion/year to jail criminal aliens" and "Bush refuses to pay for the trouble he causes". California pays at least $750 million to jail illegal aliens, and has only got part of that back from the feds.
However:
On the other hand, Bush would increase the U.S. Border Patrol budget to more than $3 billion, a 29 percent increase the administration says would be enough to hire 1,500 additional border agents.The LAT offers "State Would Again Lose Funds for Jailed Illegal Immigrants" and from the WashTimes comes the not-surprising news that "Request falls short of full funding for border agents".
Another $35 million is proposed for the San Diego border fence, and $100 million for an assortment of new border-enforcement technologies.
These are some of the provisions in Bush's spending plan for next year that would affect California directly.
UPDATE: As an extra special gift to the Americans, Bush included something else in his budget: $247 million for his "temporary" worker scheme.
Posted to Immigration at 02:10 AM | Comments (3)
Citibank "recruiting" illegal aliens for home loans
Hello, Democrats! You want to talk about corruption? How about talking about a form of corruption that will actually resonate with most Americans?From "Home-buying program has cash, controversy. Undocumented residents being recruited for loans":
ACORN members, advocates on housing issues for low-and moderate-income people and Citibank have quietly recruited applicants in the county for more than a year...It goes on quite a bit, but here's what you can do about it:
But the market is vast and the level of interest in the program is high, especially since the loans typically offer below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and require no mortgage insurance.
...Only two tax-ID mortgages have been processed locally, but about 10 local Citibank loans to undocumented immigrants may soon be finalized with the help of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The nonprofit organization receives much of its funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
...Wells Fargo recently seized on the market, joining Citibank as the only nationwide banks offering tax-ID loans. Wells Fargo started its pilot tax-ID loan program in Los Angeles and Orange counties in December.
Chuck Lemoine, a Wells Fargo senior vice president, said providing tax-ID loans is legal and that reaching out “is not only the right thing to do, it's good business.”
...ACORN Housing officials disclosed [the identity of the story's illegal alien victim] to The San Diego Union-Tribune on the condition her full name not be used. Six years ago, Estela asked an American friend to help her buy a home. She paid the costs, his name was on the loan and title. But a tax lien frightened her friend, who transferred the title to Estela. When the mortgage company found out she was an illegal immigrant, it demanded full payment.
Estela thought she would have to sell her three-bedroom home or lose it. That is, until she heard about the tax-ID loan program. In October, Estela signed the final documents for a new mortgage issued by Citibank.
The local tax-ID program has kept a low profile – no Citibank or ACORN-issued news releases – because of the anti-immigrant backlash that the overall program has drawn. Citibank has processed 72 tax-ID loans nationally since October 2004, half in California...
..."We're seriously looking at getting these banks charged with aiding and abetting someone who's a criminal," said William Gheen, president of the national group Americans for Legal Immigration. "Illegal aliens are criminals."
1. If you do business with Citibank, stop. And, make sure and send them a letter telling them exactly why.
2. Contact your representatives and tell them to close the loophole - or intentional feature - that allows illegal aliens to get these loans.
3. At the least, tell your representatives to stop HUD from funding a far-left organization like ACORN.
Posted to Immigration at 08:16 PM | Comments (3)
"[Rob] Reiner initiative bad for preschoolers"
Alan Bonsteel, president of California Parents for Educational Choice offers his thoughts on Rob "Meathead" Reiner's preschool initiative:...California's public schools are governed by four interlocking layers of dysfunctional bureaucracy: the federal, state, county and district levels. No one is in charge of anything, least of all the parents, voters and taxpayers. Not only do the multiple layers of bureaucracy soak up an unacceptable amount of taxpayer dollars, but disagreements among the bureaucracies are resolved through lawsuits, with the taxpayers footing the bill for each camp of dueling educrats.Previously: UC study: by Third Grade, Preschool benefits disappear and "Preschool for All Act", Rob Reiner, and the government targeting 4-year-olds.
Reiner's scheme again involves all four levels of bureaucracy, but, worse still, the primary responsibility for administering his tax funding of preschools is the black hole of California education, our county offices of education. Most voters are unaware even of the existence of these county offices, and not one in 100 can name their county superintendent of public instruction.
As a result of this lack of democratic control and public oversight over the county offices of education, the misnamed "continuation" schools they run graduate almost no one, and their schools for mentally retarded and physically handicapped kids are shamefully dysfunctional. Many school reformers have advocated for years eliminating entirely California's county offices of education and folding their responsibilities into the state Department of Education and the districts in order to streamline the bureaucracy and provide more transparency and accountability to voters.
Very few of the high-quality community-owned preschools that have served us so well would survive in an environment in which they must compete with preschools that appear to consumers to be giving away their product. As these community-owned preschools close, freedom of choice in preschool education will vanish, and the door will slam shut on quality preschool education for the low-income families who most need it. No one who understands California public education would have made such an obvious error as to put early childhood education into the hands of the county offices of education, and Reiner's initiative is yet another example of a multimillionaire abusing the initiative process and refusing to seek expert advice...
Posted to California at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
Los Angeles City Council opposes Minuteman Project, supports illegal immigration
Lead by Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles City Council has approved a resolution opposing "anti-migrant vigilantes" and supporting "immigration reform", i.e., a massive amnesty:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence of the Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles hereby includes in its 2005-2006 State and Federal Legislative Program support for any legislation which 1. denounces the vigilante actions of private individuals or groups along the border and entering our urban communities to engage presumably in civilian patrol initiatives to assist the federal government in enforcing the immigration laws; 2. prohibits or otherwise hinders any vigilante type civilian action resulting in spying on others or sharing information with law enforcement officers and fosters the view that each and every person who is present within the city, county, and state, are presumptively here lawfully as citizen, legal resident, or visitor with appropriate documentation; and 3. enacts comprehensive immigration reform that combines a path to permanent status for immigrants here and wider legal channels for those coming in the future with humane and effective enforcement.
What's interesting is that they seem to have lifted language and concepts from an earlier resolution by - guess! - the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
See "Los Angeles City Council approves illegal alien day laborer hiring hall" for more on the council and its members. And, see "Financial Times discovers dangers of massive illegal immigration" for a recent study reporting on the devastating impact of illegal immigration on the city.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:06 PM | Comments (6)
Lithuania: dead sailor might have had bird flu
AN Indian sailor who died in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda may have been infected with bird flu, the Lithuanian health ministry said today.They aren't going to do an autopsy for religous reasons, so we won't know the exact cause.
"A member of the crew of the ship MV Ocean Wind, Indian citizen Shaikh Rafikque, died in Klaipeda today. The suspected cause of death is bird flu," a statement from the ministry said.
If avian flu is confirmed as the cause of death, it would be the first human case of the disease in the European Union...
The Liberian-flagged Ocean Wing came to Lithuania from Germany on January 17 to undergo repairs, the health ministry said...
...Kazimieras Lukauskas, head of Lithuania's state veterinary and food service, said raw poultry was among foods loaded onto the ship in Germany, but played down the possibility that it was the cause of the sailor's death...
Posted to Miscellania at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
Holly Mullen of Salt Lake Tribune can't think things through
The SLT columnist offers this:I have a few questions surrounding HB7. This bill would take a meat ax to a 3-year-old law that allows undocumented immigrants who finish high school here to pay resident tuition for college.Mullen is apparently unable to do math, so let's help her out. Just using sample figures, let's say there are 1000 discounted tuitions available, and there are 1169 applicants for those tuitions: 1000 citizens and 169 illegal aliens.
Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, has sponsored this bill since 2004. He argues that permitting people who live in this country illegally to pay in-state tuition is at odds with federal law. He worries that the state risks being sued by nonresident students who, as legal U.S. citizens, believe they should get the same break.
Donnelson's might be the most mean-spirited bill to fly out of the hopper in years...
...a total of 169 [illegal aliens] attended state-funded institutions in 2004-05 [under the bill]
And, let's say all those illegal aliens were selected for those discounts.
So, there are 1000 discounts, and out of those 169 went to illegal aliens and therefore 831 (1000-169) went to citizens.
That means that 169 U.S. citizens didn't receive a discounted education. In effect, illegal aliens took educations away from U.S. citizens.
In fact, for every discounted education that an illegal alien receives, there's one that a U.S. citizen doesn't get.
That's not only "mean-spirited", it's explicitly anti-American and devalues the worth of American citizenship.
Please contact the columnist at hmullen@sltrib.com or 801-257-8610 and help her with her math.
Posted to Immigration at 05:44 AM | Comments (4)
Documenting the slide into fascism
OK, so the title's a little strong. Nevertheless, here's more on the Pentagon's domestic spying program. The picture of Donald Rumsfeld touring the KGB museum is a bit much, however:...Created three years ago by the Defense Department, CIFA's [the U.S. Army's top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity] role is "force protection"—tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States. In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALON—short for Threat and Local Observation Notice—that would collect "raw information" about "suspicious incidents." The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's "terrorism threat warning process," according to an internal Pentagon memo...Then see "Exclusive: Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?"
...A Pentagon memo obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained. The number of reports with names of U.S. persons could be in the thousands, says a senior Pentagon official who asked not be named because of the sensitivity of the subject...
...on Oct. 25, the TALON team reported another possible threat to national security. The source: a Miami antiwar Web page. "Website advertises protest planned at local military recruitment facility," the internal report warns. The database entry refers to plans by a south Florida group called the Broward Anti-War Coalition to protest outside a strip-mall recruiting office in Lauderhill, Fla. The TALON entry lists the upcoming protest as a "credible" threat. As it turned out, the entire event consisted of 15 to 20 activists waving a giant BUSH LIED sign. No one was arrested. "It's very interesting that the U.S. military sees a domestic peace group as a threat," says Paul Lefrak, a librarian who organized the protest...
In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances...
A Justice Department official, who asked not to be ID'd because of the sensitive subject, said Bradbury's remarks were made during an "academic discussion" of theoretical contingencies. In real life, the official said, the highest priority of those hunting a terrorist on U.S. soil would be to capture that person alive and interrogate him. At a public intel-committee hearing, Feinstein was told by intel czar John Negroponte and FBI chief Robert Mueller that they were unaware of any case in which a U.S. agency was authorized to kill a Qaeda-linked person on U.S. soil. Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, told NEWSWEEK: "Mr. Bradbury's meeting was an informal, off-the-record briefing about the legal analysis behind the president's terrorist-surveillance program. He was not presenting the legal views of the Justice Department on hypothetical scenarios outside of the terrorist-surveillance program."
Posted to Politics at 10:18 PM | Comments (7)
The Guardian: American crops rotting in the fields
The Guardian Unlimited (aka "al Guardian") chimes in on the long running series containing dire predictions from growers in which they complain about not having enough cheap foreign serf labor: "US crops left to rot as Mexicans leave the fields for better-paid jobs" by Dan Glaister.If you've been following along, yes!, the article does include a quote from Jon Vessey. And, as with the WaPo, the CSM, and the LAT, they don't mention that he's on the board of the Western Growers Association. And, he's got something to say:
"Last year money was being thrown at border patrol and homeland security," Mr Vessey says, sitting in his office in the nearby town of El Centro, a signed photograph of him with George and Laura Bush hanging on the wall. "They've got to get numbers. So what do they do? They pull over labour buses. The bottom line is, we're not getting people on to our buses with bags of marijuana and bombs. These are hard-working people."Of course it would never fly, because almost everyone else knows just how much damage that would do to the U.S. Whether George Bush and those who would profit off the open borders would care about that is probably not too likely. They're just here to make money, and everything else takes a backseat.
..."There is a hysteria around the border and terrorism that has nothing to do with agriculture and people who want to earn a good living," says Mr Vessey. "The idea of spending millions building a fence from the Gulf of Mexico to San Diego is ridiculous. Shouldn't we be building bridges rather than walls? If you have a free trade agreement, you should have open borders," he says. "But that would never fly."
Previous examples start in "Dania Akkad of Monterey Herald warns: crops may rot in fields".
Posted to Immigration at 08:53 AM | Comments (2)
Val Verde County deputy warns about terrorist infiltration
From this:A deputy sheriff warned federal lawmakers Friday that drug traffickers are helping suspected terrorists cross from Mexico into Texas.Rep. John Culberson reiterates his concerns discussed in "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico" and Senator John Cornyn also had something to say. Regarding the latter, see also Sen. John Cornyn linked to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed?
Val Verde County chief deputy Terry Simons offered little evidence publicly of his claims before congressmen at a meeting in Houston.
The FBI couldn't immediately confirm the lawman's account.
Simons says Texas authorities have learned of newly established camps in Mexico, where so-called "narco-terrorists" are getting trained...
Posted to Immigration_terror at 04:49 AM | Comments (2)
Dianne Feinstein: border is "major gateway" for terrorists
From this:Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., expressed concern Thursday that the southern border has become a "major gateway” for Middle Eastern terrorists in a hearing with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and other top intelligence officials.A DHS official with the stock "we're getting better every day!" follows.
Feinstein noted that law enforcement officials captured 155,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens in 2005, more than three times as many as the 49,545 that were apprehended in 2003.
Negroponte told Feinstein that the intelligence community was "sensitive to” the issue she raised, but said that the Canadian border posed "a bit greater concern.”
Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:47 PM | Comments (3)
Michael Chertoff apologizes for latest Rex-related deaths
Speaking in Chicago earlier today, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff profusely apologized for the latest round of maulings and deaths caused by 'Ready Kids' mascot and mountain lion 'Rex'.
"When we originally invisioned the latest mascot 'Rex' we were going to create him as just a cartoon character. However, we had the brilliant idea of using a real mountain lion in order to increase our penetration of the market. It is unfortunate that due to various unforeseen circumstances Rex was able to get loose. And, we heartily apologize for not just the latest incident but all previous incidents as well", he said.
Some sources have raised issues with Rex's handler, Alan Hubertson, claiming that he is unqualified for the role. Hubertson is a former lawyer for the mercury and dioxin disposal industry association and a former member of Team Bush-Cheney 2004. He is also a cousin of vice president Dick Cheney. And, he has absolutely no background in wild animal management or any field of life sciences. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff derides all such criticisms as "partisan politics."
'Rex' - together with his cartoon wife Purrcilla, his daughter Rory and his best friend, Hector Hummingbird - form the latest propaganda offensive from the DHS, designed to help schoolchildren as young as 3rd grade understand to the very root of their being the absolutely vital necessity of electing some member of the Bush family - or whosoever they may designate - in order to protect them.
Earlier in the day, Secretary Chertoff held a very informative roundtable discussion in which he said that in addition to featuring cartoon mascots, the DHS is also "getting the border under control". However, he warned America that they can't achieve full control unless and until they have a guest worker program. "Anything else would be contrary to 'market' forces," he reminded America.
Secretary Chertoff is working with the Ad Council, Scholastic Inc., and Halliburton to "re-tool" the Rex campaign, including the possibility of feeding him immediately before appearances at schools and forcing him to wear large gloves. They will also shortly be announcing a new "Protect Your Necks From Rex" campaign.
Source: dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0848.xml
UPDATE: Linked by this.
Posted to Miscellania at 08:33 PM | Comments (3)
Another border incursion; Hudspeth County Sheriff's deputies receive threats
From this:An American law enforcement officer and news crew in Texas have witnessed another armed incursion into the United States by men dressed in Mexican army attire, the second such incident in just two weeks...And:
...The incursion was witnessed by a KFOX news crew and Hudspeth County deputy, photos of which are posted on the affiliate's website.
The deputy and news crew were on the scene Tuesday night to film a segment about last week's incursion, when the law officer noticed more "soldiers" emerge from a clearing on the U.S. side of the border.
As the deputy and news crew watched, three soldiers emerged into the clearing before one hurried back into the concealment of brush, KFOX reported. But the deputy pointed out other, larger groups of soldiers engaged in a flanking action against him and the news crew, most probably, the deputy believes, in an attempt to figure out what they were doing...
In the past few days, Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department deputies and their families have received threats to stay off the Rio Grande. Sheriff Arvin West told ABC-7 Thursday morning, before departing for Houston that the Mexican military is behind all of this.But... they're just good-hearted soldiers, trying to put food on the table. Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River.
Sheriff West said, "There is no doubt in my mind -- from the first time going back to a couple of years ago and every time in between --- it's the Mexican military. In a nutshell, everybody's been trying to tell everybody that they were here...they've been here ...[and] they come here quite often, regularly."
Posted to Immigration at 04:04 AM | Comments (10)
Join The Jobs for South Asia Coalition!
In the recent entry "Central Valley orange growers look to Thailand for labor" I alluded to a "shocking revelation", and now's the time to reveal what that meant.
The "Jobs for South Asia Coalition" - which you probably never heard of - was a Swiftian satire on guest worker programs.
The "Coalition" wanted to bring victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami to the U.S. as guest workers, and it bore more than a whiff of slavery. In bad taste? Well, shortly after I published the idea, a Cato Institute analyst (Will Wilkinson) came out with a serious proposal closely tracking my (satirical) proposal. And, that proposal was published in Reason Magazine. And, that was a couple weeks after I'd sent an email to Reason Magazine asking for their assistance with my "proposal".
Was it just a case of great minds thinking alike?
The blog is at jfsac.blogspot.com, but you can read the latest version here: "Jobs for South Asia Coalition". Please post that link around.
Despite my best efforts (also this and this classic), my satire never really took off. But, hopefully now that it's hosted at the HuffPost we can change that.
Posted to Bloggage at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
Washington Post supports illegal immigration
Proving once again just how much they support illegal immigration, Nikita Stewart of the Washington Post offers "Mix-Up Reveals Va. Day Laborers' Rising Fear".It's like Fahrenheit 451 come to life:
When William Lilley, who counts traffic for a living, and his two co-workers pulled into the Woodbridge 7-Eleven parking lot yesterday morning at 5:15, the handfuls of men in work boots and jeans regarded them warily.While traffic counters aren't immigration agents, obviously they shouldn't be making such statements. Perhaps Lilley should find a job with a private agency instead.
The Virginia Department of Transportation workers had arrived to count cars and pedestrians at the intersection of busy Route 1 and Longview Drive, but Lilley said he immediately realized that to the day laborers waiting for work at the convenience store, they looked like the enemy...
Before Lilley, who speaks Spanish, could explain who they were, some laborers walked off the site, and others called advocacy groups Mexicans Without Borders and the Woodbridge Workers Committee. Before Lilley and company could make their identities known, the two groups had sent out a joint news release that read: "ALERT - Urgent: Minuteman show up at Woodbridge VA day laborers site today."
...Lilley said that his wife is Hispanic and that the couple have closely followed the day-laborer disputes in the news. He said he told his colleagues that the workers were frightened.
"I speak Spanish. I whispered to a couple of them, 'Don't worry. We're with the state,' " he said.
Perhaps he could go to work for "Mexicans Without Borders", which is more popularly known as "Mexicanos sin Fronteras". One wonders exactly why the Spanish version of their name wasn't provided, and whether the WaPo reporter played a part in that, and whether that was intentional. In any case, that group's site is at mexicanossinfronteras.org, where they express their unconditional support for the EZLN, otherwise known as the "Zapatista Army of National Liberation".
Here's a new slogan this illegal immigration-supporting newspaper should try out: "Raise the fist with the Washington Post!"
Posted to Immigration at 01:18 PM | Comments (3)
Is Tim Kaine intelligent enough to run Virginia?
Virginia's Democratic governor Tim Kaine said the following yesterday:
"I don't believe immigration is one of the top issues in Virginia if you ask Virginians... It does matter to a number of people, but compared to jobs, education, health care, transportation, it's pretty far down."
Does he actually mean this? Because, if he does he's probably not bright enough to run that state.
Massive illegal immigration has an impact on a wide number of other issues, including "jobs, education, health care, transportation," and many others.
The extreme example is that provided by California. One of Tim Kaine's jobs would seem to be making sure that his state doesn't end up in the same sad condition as this state.
If he can't figure out the devastating impact of massive illegal immigration, then perhaps he should be recalled.
Posted to Immigration at 11:11 AM | Comments (5)
Cindy Sheehan's arrest, sloganeering, the SOTU, and purple fingers
Cindy Sheehan's much-prized First Amendment rights might not have been violated (nofollowpolicy) when she was arrested at last night's State of the Union. It's apparently a misdemeanor to engage in sloganeering and the like inside the Capitol building.
In fact:
The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, told a newspaper that she was ejected during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that says, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."
And:
In the early days of the Senate's impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in January 1999, a Pennsylvania man named Dave Delp was removed by the Capitol police from the Senate gallery for wearing a t-shirt that said, "Clinton doesn't inhale, he sucks."
However, it doesn't take much to recall a similar case in which people should have been ejected but obviously were not. From a 2005 SOTU live-blogging:
Just saw the first purple fingers being raised; all were on their feet applauding.
Sounds a bit like sloganeering to me.
UPDATE: It looks like the Capitol Police arrested her on what might end up being a specious charge:
Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia's code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said.
In fact, while she might have intended to disrupt the proceedings, it doesn't appear at this time that she did. And, they dropped the charges and released her. And, of course:
Sheehan said she had one arm out of her coat when an officer yelled, "Protester." She said she intended to file a First Amendment lawsuit over the episode.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
Norm Coleman's staff edits wikipedia bio
Who really cares?
Posted to Bloggage at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
Gallup: most proud to be an American
A recent Gallup poll asked people whether they were "proud to be an American", and the results were:
extremely: 59%
very: 26%
"only a little" or "not at all": 5%
Since the poll appears to be subscriber-only, I'm having trouble figuring out what the remaining 10% said. "Somewhat"? "Undecided"? "Unsure"? "Where am I"? Let's ask a DUmmie.
And, over 50% want immigration levels reduced.
Posted to Politics at 04:11 AM | Comments (0)
Free Cindy Sheehan! Free Cindy Sheehan!
This site stands in solidarity with loony activist - and proud Democrat - Cindy Sheehan.There's obsessive coverage of her arrest at the SOTU here, including a picture of the shirt.
And, from this:
...Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider told the Associated Press that Sheehan kept the anti-war slogan covered until she took her seat. When they noticed her politically charged attire, police warned Sheehan that such displays were not allowed...She probably had a First Amendment right to wear the shirt, just as long as she wasn't disrupting the proceedings. And, it's cases like this that the new federal police force might address. Under that provision, she might be charged with a federal felony instead of a local misdemeanor.
Sheehan had received a House gallery pass to attend the speech as a guest of San Francisco Democrat Lynn Woolsey, whose spokesman told reporters that protesting Peace Mom had promised to remain respectful and not cause any disruptions while the president spoke.
So, this site is a bit torn, especially since similar things have happened in the past. It would be nice if this had been yet another chance to point out just how low class much of the left is, rather than yet another opportunity to discuss the modern GOP's difficulties with basic American principles.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 01:31 AM | Comments (2)
Dover Post reporter fired... for blogging
The DUmmies report here. The underlying news article link is bad, but his myspace "blog" - apparently what they're referring to - is here, with his explanation here.
Posted to Bloggage at 01:25 AM | Comments (0)
