Saturday, August 30, 2008

Did you know...

…that Homeland Security publishes an annual document called Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. It contains all sorts of charts and graphs to show what is happening in Immigration.

The Yearbook has (well, HAD) five sections. They are:

Legal Permanent Residents
Refugees and Asylees
Naturalizations
Nonimmigrant Admissions
Enforcement

You can see the link here:
http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/

For some unexplained reason two sections do not appear in the Yearbook for 2007. Nonimmigrant Admissions and Enforcement are missing from the report.

Does anyone know why? Does anyone care?

I was snooping around the Homeland Security website today and I discovered that the Gary Mead was twice called to testify before Congress regarding his operation, Detentions and Removals.

Congress was not calling him in to ask if he needed more money or more help in housing and removing the illegal alien population. No sir.

Congress wanted to investigate allegations that he was detaining citizens, not aliens. And the second time they were concerned about the health and welfare of illegal aliens in custody.

Here are his remarks to Congress:
http://www.ice.gov/doclib/pi/news/testimonies/garymead_testimony_ice_interrogation_detention_and_removal_procedures.pdf

and

http://www.ice.gov/doclib/pi/news/testimonies/071004icetestimony.pdf

Has our country gone completely mad?

Friday, August 29, 2008

The rights of the left - Part 2

In case you missed it, there is a You Tube of the Denver convention where a mob goes after Michelle Malkin.

You hear chants of "love, peace, justice" interspersed with "Kill Michelle Malkin." These aren't chants edited in. No sir. They are just as they took place and both chants are repeated several times.

What I didn't know is the power of this one tiny woman. Malkin is personally responsible for:
*The Iraq War
*9/11
*Halliburton
*The mortgage crisis
*Torture
*The New World Order
*Katrina
*FEMA Internment Camps
*Horrid age spots
*Body odor
*Bugs that won't come off the windshield
*Global warming
*Adolf Hitler
*Hunger (I mean "Food Insecurity")
*Pearl Harbor
...pretty much all the evils of mankind can be linked directly to her and her influence on government.

Of course, they leave out the fact that Bush and the RINOs despise her because she is constantly calling them out on the illegal alien crisis. And it won't improve with McCain in the White House. She's very clever, isn't she?

She was courageous and held her ground for the better part of ten minutes and then walked away. They followed her for a couple of blocks before finally giving up.

Not once did I see a Denver cop or anyone in security lift a finger to cool the confrontation.

Well, if you've got 10 minutes and the bandwidth take a look for yourself.

The NEW Merida Initiative

I suppose you all know that all the necessary approvals were given to spend $1.6 BILLION on the Merida Intiatives, a taxpayer subsidy of the war on drugs South of the Border.

Mexico already has its first installment of $400 MILLION.

Merida is quite a nice place. Why else would these leaders meet there to divvy up our money? It’s close to Cancun. Lots of Mayan ruins to look at.

So, what’s the NEW Merida Initiative? Well, someone has dumped some bodies in town; 11 of them to be exact.

Quoting from the AP story, “The heads were not immediately found.”

Drug war deaths have become common in Mexico. So far this year the death toll is 2,600. But Merida is off the beaten path and a tourist town. Tijuana sure, but not Merida.

Lest we get too comfortable here, that same drug war has moved north. El Paso is on alert because Mexican hit men are looking for their own who have come here thinking they were safe.

But wait…there’s more. There are news reports from Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Florida and Alabama where the drug lords are killing people throughout their supply chain.

And Utah officials are now cleaning out a hybrid marijuana field with thousands of plants eight feet tall with two-inch thick stalks. Mexican illegals were arrested as they tended the fields off in remote canyons.

And Operation Community Shield, a Homeland Security program, is specifically dedicated to combating the infiltration of foreign criminals into the street gangs of the United States. They can’t keep up with all the activity. And frankly, picking up 50 at a time will not put a dent in the problem.

Where this all fits in with NAFTA and “Jobs Americans won’t do,” is unclear at this time.

If the election were held today...

…I’d vote for Obama.

Why? Because of what he said when he made the surprise appearance at the convention on Wednesday night. I am told it was an unscripted statement, which means someone else didn’t write it for him.

(By the way, why don’t we elect those great speechwriters instead of the guys who are good at reading from a TelePrompTer?)

I’m assuming Barack was speaking from the heart on August 27th when he said: “I am so proud to have Joe Biden with me on this journey to take America back.”

That’s exactly what we need. FINALLY!…a candidate who understands it.

Take back America by eliminating citizenship at birth to children of illegal alien parents.
Take back America by sealing the border.
Take back America by getting a handle on expired visas.
Take back America by stepping up the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.
Take back America by putting employers of illegals in jail.
Take back America by requiring positive identification of job applicants.
Take back America by prosecuting those who harbor illegal aliens.
Take back America by prosecuting those who aid and abet them, instead of our current practice of giving them government grants.
Take back America by throwing the Mexican government out of our cities and towns.
Take back America by exposing globalization for what it really is; an effort by socialists to redistribute world wealth. (Ditto for global warming.)
Take back America by lowering the immigration levels to around 250,000 per year.
Take back America by ending chain migration.

So, I’ve got a call in to the Obama campaign just to make sure I understood him correctly.

Update:
Scratch that. False alarm. I misunderstood. In the background campaign workers were practicing the chant, “Yes we can!”, a phrase first used by Cesar Chavez in the 1972 United Farm Workers campaign.

Naw, he doesn't want to send the illegal aliens packing. He wants to embrace them and care for them and increase their wages and benefits. Heck, he wants to make sure the Social Security they paid under fraudulent circumstances gets credited to them.

How is that supposed to take back America?

If Obama plans to take back America I sure hope he has the receipt. I’m thinking this America was a gift he didn’t pay for. And there’s the rub in Barack’s utopia; how do you pay for it all.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The rights of the left

Activist judges and modern interpretation of the Bill of Rights sometimes results in unintended consequences. It is one thing to demand the right to criticize our government and expect the publication of pornography to be protected.

It is quite another when that same logic works against you.

Case in point is a recent radio program on WGN in Chicago. WGN is owned by the Chicago Tribune’s parent company. It is a cut above some talk radio stations known for being conservative. It does not host Limbaugh or Ingram or Savage or any of the other celebrities who cause apoplexy among the progressives.

In fact, WGN Radio has had a dynasty of sorts in some time slots. Everyone in Chicago knows the names Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, and Spike O’Dell.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this Obama controversy is the target –Milt Rosenberg. For 35 years Milt has been on the air at night with intellectual fare that disregards the rules of radio and allows PhDs to discuss their favorite topics for two hours straight. The model can’t work, but it does.

So Milt has Stanley Kurtz on the air Wednesday (8/27) to talk about his analysis of a recently-released collection of documents from the 1990s. Barack Obama was the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a group charged with dispensing $100 MILLION in grants.

Obama worked with Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn in conjunction with the project. The University originally sealed the collection and refused public inspection. (Duh! A surefire way to generate interest in the files.)

So Monday night the university released the collection, Stanley came out to review it, and Wendesday night he’s on the air to talk about it.

Podcast segment one starts here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/wgnradio/x720uncut

So the Obama campaign fires up the blitz machine and they start calling the radio station. They are calling from all over the country. They call an hour and a half before Stanley even opens his mouth.

Their complaint: WGN is biased and rude for having this man on the air during the DNC Convention in Denver. Stanley Kurtz is a kook with an anti-Obama agenda. Take him off the air.

Wrong approach, liberals! Here’s why:
1) WGN can do you a lot of good if you are friendly to them.
2) Spike O’Dell has been trying for months to get Obama on his morning drive show.
3) Stanley Kurtz is NOT a tinfoil hat hack. He’s a respected, conservative writer.
4) No one was out to compete with Obama for attention.
5) It sounds like censorship.
6) It calls attention to the papers.
7) More people will hear the podcast now than ever before.

Why would the party of openness and ideas shun the comments of two very articulate scholars? Maybe because they have something to hide? Maybe they don’t like dissention?

There is talk of changing media regulations as a direct assault on talk radio. Welcome back to King George III.

Local coverage of Denver

I opened the Daily Herald this morning and the front page was laid out like this:
Under the banner was the story about the railroad tracks. It's a long story.

Right under that, still above the fold, is a sequence of photos showing Blago and Mike Madigan in a big hug at the DNC in Denver

THEN comes the historic Obama nomination.

The big Illinois story isn't that Obama was nominated. The big Illinois story is that the Governor and Illinois Speaker are actually talking to each other for a change.

In fact, all sorts of former enemies are now talking to Blago. They aren't just gestures of friendliness to put on a show for the public. Nor are they a smokescreen to blunt the Emil Jones comment that Hillary hold-outs are "Uncle Toms."

The story behind all this affection is this: Blago holds the cards for Obama's Senate seat if Barack wins in November. Blago will name the replacement. And the gift of a free Senate seat is a BIG gift.
Obama spent over $14 MILLION to win in 2004.

Plus, whoever is sitting in that seat come the next election has the incumbent advantage.

This is no small potatoes for any politician.

And to think that the only people who would even be seen photographed with the gov at the state fair a week ago were Emil Jones, his daugher and a pig. Even his daughter was reported as saying, "Oh Daddy, do I have to?" (That last one was a flat out lie on my part!)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Obama's Cone of Silence

You will hear all sorts of messages coming out of Denver this week. You might even hear some discord as the Clinton camp flexes their muscles on national TV.

But there is one thing you will not hear. You will not hear Obama say much about Illinois politics. Why? Well, because there is very little positive to say. In a masterful piece on the front page of the Daily Herald today, John Patterson, the political reporter held hostage in Springfield, explains Obama’s pals and how things are working out for them.

First there is Obama’s mentor, Emil Jones. The same Emil Jones who was pitching for a 12% raise this year until the political process shut him down. The same Emil Jones who anointed his own son to replace him when he retires later this year. The same Emil Jones who has been caught over and over again providing family and friends with state jobs and state contracts.

Then there is Todd Stroger, endorsed by Obama as Cook County Board Chairman. Todd was another political “anointment” when his father had a stroke. Todd has been instrumental in creating the county with the highest sales tax in all the land. Todd has trouble with big words at press conferences. Todd had decreed that he is too important to wait for elevators so he had an elevator at his office designated as his own.

Then there is Governor Blagojevich. His name is all over the papers in connection with Tony Rezko, Obama’s next door neighbor (sort of) and the current darling of influence peddling. And Blago is no model politician at consensus-building, which is Obama’s magic bullet solution for everything from foreign policy problems to high oil prices.

Shifting away from personalities to programs, Obama would do well NOT to mention state-run health care programs in Illinois. Problems there include:
1) Doctors and hospitals not getting paid
2) Doctors refusing to put their names on the list of providers
3) Freebie health care to illegal aliens
4) Lawsuits for medical mistakes and poor quality care
5) Failed legislation to expand the program

Patterson's article is a good read at:
http://dailyherald.com/story/?id=229757

You would think the Illinois GOP is gaining support like crazy with the Democrats in such disarray. Think again. Carpetbagger Alan Keyes is the reason Obama is in the senate in the first place. ‘nuf sed.

Biden on race

“I think that the only reason Clarence Thomas is on the Court is because he is black. I don't believe he could have won had he been white. And the reason is, I think it was a cynical ploy by President Bush.”

A taped interview with Florence Graves for Common Cause Magazine

Biden's MO

Just so we know how Obama's VP operates, I take you back to 1991 when they had the hearings on Clarence Thomas. Here's what Thomas wrote in his book about the man who led the hearings:

Senator Biden was the first questioner. Instead of the softball questions he’d promised to ask, he threw a beanball straight at my head, quoting from a speech that I’d given four years earlier at the Pacific Legal Foundation and challenging me to defend what I’d said: “ ‘I find attractive the arguments of scholars such as Stephen Macedo, who defend an activist Supreme Court that would . . . strike down laws restricting property right.’ ” That caught me off guard, and I had no recollection of making so atypical a statement, which shook me up even more. “Now, it would seem to me what you were talking about,” Senator Biden went on to say, “is you find attractive the fact that they are activists and they would like to strike down existing laws that impact on restricting the use of property rights, because you know, that is what they write about.”Since I didn’t remember making the statement in the first place, I didn’t know how to respond to it. All I could say in reply was that “it has been quite some time since I have read Professor Macedo. . . . But I don’t believe that in my writings I have indicated that we should have an activist Supreme Court or that we should have any form of activism on the Supreme Court.” It was, I knew, a weak answer. Fortunately, though, the young lawyers who had helped prepare me for the hearings had loaded all of my speeches into a computer, and at the first break in the proceedings they looked this one up. The senator, they found, had wrenched my words out of context. I looked at the text of my speech and saw that the passage he’d read out loud had been immediately followed by two other sentences: “But the libertarian argument overlooks the place of the Supreme Court in a scheme of separation of powers. One does not strengthen self-government and the rule of law by having the non-democratic branch of the government make policy.” The point I’d been making was the opposite of the one that Senator Biden claimed I had made.

From the book My Grandfather’s Son, by Justice Clarence Thomas

Friday, August 22, 2008

Lessons learned from Operation Scheduled Departure

It’s always a good idea to evaluate past efforts and see what was worth keeping and what needs to be changed the next time. That’s how we improve.

So, as we near the end of Immigration’s Operation Scheduled Departure what did we learn?

First, that an offer for a kinder-gentler sort of deportation program doesn’t appeal to the 550,000 fugitives Immigration is looking for. EIGHT people nation-wide stepped forward for removal.

Second, the message was lost on the English-speaking media. They never understood the target audience of this program. ICE was NOT inviting just anyone here illegally to step forward. The people they were looking for were individuals who had been all the way through the hearings/appeals process and the judge finally ordered them to leave the country on such-and-such a date. Rather than leave, they just disappeared. It is the Immigration equivalent of an outstanding warrant.

Now, normally these folks would be picked up and shipped off right away once they were located. Sometimes they show up among the workers at a plant raid. Sometimes Immigration shows up at their doorstep at 5:00 am. Either way they are subject to IMMEDIATE removal.

This program simply gave them the opportunity to organize and control their departure a little bit. And Immigration was willing to help them depart as families, an option that isn’t available when they find these fugitives on the street.

Third, the Hispanic media was no help at all. This is funny because even an amnesty program wouldn’t likely include this group. It would have to be a very liberal plan indeed to allow fugitive absconders a path to citizenship.

Fourth, some Latino activist groups showed their true stripes as explained by Jim Hayes, the program director. “The very criticism of this program makes it transparent that they don't want [immigration] laws enforced.” (from the Wall Street Journal)

Fifth, the summary by Jim Hayes himself: “The bottom line is it is not effective. Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement.” (from AP)

I hope these people remember that when ICE turns the screws tighter against illegal aliens. But no one likes, “I told you so.”

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Mayor Gordon

Take your meds.

Note: see the update to this post below!

This is a real Jekyll and Hyde case. It has to be one of three things:
1) He’s just a politician
2) He has a split personality
3) He’s finally seen the light

Phil Gordon is the Mayor of Phoenix. In April he sent a letter to the United States Attorney General calling for an investigation into the work of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Gordon believes that the Sheriff is violating the civil rights of Phoenix residents.

To add emphasis to the letter Gordon went to Washington DC to meet with AG Mukasey.

That was in April.

Today Mayor Gordon (or someone pretending to be him) is in Washington DC demanding that our government do something about illegal aliens in Phoenix. He took with him the wife of Nick Erfle, a Phoenix police officer who was killed by an illegal alien last year.

He will give a speech about the impact of illegals on local communities.

I wonder if Mayor Gordon realizes that the killer was arrested in Scottsdale 16 months before the killing AND WASN’T EVEN ASKED ABOUT HIS STATUS.

I wonder if he realizes that screening is one of the key functions Sheriff Arpaio stresses in his program.

I wonder if this mayor even has a twinge of hypocrisy now and then as he parades Officer Erfle’s wife around Washington.

Most important, I wonder if the voters of Phoenix can see what’s going on here.

Updated August 22nd
Now I get it. There was an Arizona Republic article about Mayor Gordon's appearance. It was a conference of police officials at a group called Police Foundation.

The agenda of Police Foundation is...give amnesty and secure the border. Now that is something Gordon will agree with.

Gordon found an ally in Foundation President Hubert Williams, who also wants Comprehensive Immigration Reform a la US Senate summer of 2007 plan.

The take away message from the "Phil Gordon Show" was that there are a few individuals who commit crime but the rest deserve to stay here and work.

Supplementing the emotional Gordon were the usual apologists for illegal aliens:
*Jeff Passel from Pew Hispanic Center
*Raquel Aldana, an immigration law professor from Nevada
*Clarissa Martínez De Castro from La Raza (NCLR)
*Rubén G. Rumbaut, Cal-Irvine who wrote the report claiming illegal aliens are less likely to commit crime than citizens for The American Immigration Law Foundation and The Immigration Policy Center. (see the Alienrants blog http://alienrants.blogspot.com/2007/05/whoa-there-perfesser.html for more information on the study.

They will all tell you with a straight face that the illegal alien crisis in this country is just racism and xenophobia; that most illegal aliens are actually good for this country.

No wonder Phil Gordon wanted to be with them.

It all makes sense now.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Reagan on Rome

Food for thought from "Dutch"
“Rome had known a pioneer beginning not unlike our own pioneer heritage, and then entered into two centuries of greatness, reaching its pinnacle in the second of those centuries, going into the decline and collapse in the third. Yet, the sins of decay were becoming apparent in the latter years of that second century.

“It is written that there were vast increases in the number of the idle rich, and the idle poor. The latter (the idle poor) were put on a permanent dole, a welfare system not unlike our own. As this system became permanent, the recipients of public largesse (welfare) increased in number. They organized into a political block with sizable power. They were not hesitant about making their demands known. Nor was the government hesitant about agreeing to their demands … and with ever-increasing frequency. Would-be emperors catered to them. The great, solid middle class—Rome’s strength then as ours is today—was taxed more and more to support a bureaucracy that kept growing larger, and even more powerful. Surtaxes were imposed upon incomes to meet emergencies. The government engaged in deficit spending. The denarius, a silver coin similar to our half dollar, began to lose its silvery hue. It took on a copper color as the government reduced the silver content.

“Even then, Gresham’s law was at work, because the real silver coin soon disappeared. It went into hiding.

“Military service was an obligation highly honored by the Romans. Indeed, a foreigner could win Roman citizenship simply by volunteering for service in the legions of Rome. But, with increasing affluence and opulence, the young men of Rome began avoiding this service, finding excuses to remain in the soft and sordid life of the city. They took to using cosmetics and wearing feminine-like hairdo’s and garments, until it became difficult, the historians tell us, to tell the sexes apart.

“Among the teachers and scholars was a group called the Cynics whose number let their hair and beards grow, and who wore slovenly clothes, and professed indifference to worldly goods as they heaped scorn on what they called ‘middle class values.’

“The morals declined. It became unsafe to walk in the countryside or the city streets. Rioting was commonplace and sometimes whole sections of towns and cities were burned.

“And, all the time, the twin diseases of confiscatory taxation and creeping inflation were waiting to deliver the death blow.

“Then finally, all these forces overcame the energy and ambition of the middle class.

“Rome fell.

“We are now approaching the end of our second century.”
(Address by Governor Ronald Reagan of California at Eisenhower College, New York, 1969.)

Illinois politics

Those who follow Springfield are sure to chuckle at the recent news that Emil Jones, President of the Illinois State Senate, is retiring.

He is one of the very few people who stands WITH Gov. Blagojevich.

For a time his clout helped carry the day but lately folks have been ignoring Jones right along with Blago.

One wonders if the recent defeat of the 12% pay raise for legislators had anything to do with it. Jones accused Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn of killing the deal for political purposes.

And Quinn really made it a public battle. He did a media blitz and set up a website where taxpayers could register their displeasure over the proposed pay raise. (It has been quite some time since I've seen anything that noble from an elected official.)

Anyway, Jones groused about the tactics Quinn used and voted "present" rather than vote "no" to a pay raise. And it was only a couple of days later that he announced his retirement.

It appears that king-making continues in Illinois politics. First it was county board chairman John Stroger paving the way for his son Todd to replace him. Now Emil Jones III is going to be on the November ballot to replace dear old dad.

You have to give the Democrats credit here. The GOP lost the Hastert seat in the special election, a tailor-made district map that should have been a shoe-in. But it wasn't. And he wasn't even trying to anoint Denny Junior!

Sadly, Hastert signed on as a senior lobbyist last month, confirming the rumor that he got out when he did to avoid the new rules for ex-Congressmen. If he has served out his term he would have had to wait two years to become a lobbyist. I always thought he was above all that.

But as Mark Twain said, "I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position."

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Just when you thought it was safe...

…to go back in the produce aisle.

We still have more questions that answers regarding the salmonella outbreak.

We do know this:
*That the last confirmed case of poisoning was on July 24th.
*That the Serrano and jalapeno peppers were tainted.
*That other produce (including tomatoes) was processed in those same plants and grown on those same farms.

What they don’t know is how the tainted produce could have created an outbreak that large.

And what they don’t want you to know is that in their testing they found other strains of salmonella in Mexico in jalapenos, basil and cilantro. They have put some of those sources on import alert, meaning they are currently subject to additional inspection.

Ain’t NAFTA great? Bush and the other pols in Washington will do anything to avoid showing Mexico in a bad light right now. Between now and November all bad news from south of the border will be kept quiet. We wouldn’t want to cause the voters to ask embarrassing questions now…would we?

Friday, August 15, 2008

We're Number ONE...

…in the wrong things.

The Editor of the Wall Street Journal commented today on a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which revealed that we are leading the world, not in the Olympics or any measure of trade.

No. We have the honor of the HIGHEST corporate tax rate of any developed nation in the world. (Well, Japan beat us by a nose.) But our combined federal/state tax rate for corporations is an average of 39.3%.

The rest of the civilized world is frantically cutting the corporate tax rates to grab more of the market.

But not us. Senator Obama is poised to go after all those big corporations in the US who don’t pay any taxes at all. And who are they?

Among them are American Airlines, which lost $862 million in 2005 and General Motors, which lost over $10 billion. Do you think that might have something to do with them not paying taxes?

The old notion that Europe is deeply rooted in socialism may not be the case anymore. Europe's average corporate tax rate is 10 points lower than ours. Ireland’s is only 12.5%!

The Obama answer is to chase that tax money overseas by taxing American businesses who set up shop in Europe. Most corporations will simply leave altogether rather than pay taxes like that, resulting in the loss of additional jobs here. (Even Drucker’s “knowledge workers” won’t be safe from lay-offs.)

This chart shows rather clearly that the rest of the world figured it out a decade ago but our politicians still want to punish success.
(Wall Street Journal chart - 8/15/08)
For globalists we’ve got a lot to learn.

On Sale Now - Fake Papers!

They just arrested five Mexican nationals in Orange County CA for selling fake documents. They could have also charged them with dumping cheap products on the market.

Get this. For $70 you could get a fake Social Security Card and a fake Green Card.

When they busted up the ring in Little Village (Chicago) in April of 2007 the going rate was $300 for a Drivers License or Social Security Card.

Maybe there is more competition in Southern California. According to the American Dream, that keeps prices low.

We are finding out as part of the fall-out from employer raids that the fake documents were all part of the employee benefits package. If they liked you, they’d take care of all the paperwork. (Someone in personnel “knows a guy……”)

One by one people are seeing what has been going on for years.

Los Desaparecidos

Could it be that we have a little Star Chamber justice going on in Mexico these days?

Allegations have surfaced that the 2007 disappearances of members of a rebel group were conducted by the Mexican Government. And the allegations are gaining credence because Mexico’s Interior Department used the phrase “forced disappearance” in their press release regarding the investigation.

Iraq, Iran, Argentina, Chile, the USSR…all have a history of making people disappear.

Here in the civilized world such acts are generally carried out by organized crime - a la Jimmy Hoffa legend. The preferred method of western government is faked suicide. (Oooh, that slipped out of my mind. Strike it from the record.)

What makes this story newsworthy is that the Mexican Government is nibbling at the edges of an admission of guilt. Or is just restating the obvious since the Mexican AG office just revealed six moles keeping drug lords one step ahead of the law?

Or perhaps complete police departments so corrupt that the military has taken them over and arrested all the cops?

If you like Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook, the 1983 movie “Star Chamber” is an interesting take on the judicial system. (Rated R. I saw the TV edited version.)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Move over Campeon and Ramos

Here we go again. There was a confrontation at the border on Tuesday. A group of Mexicans were throwing rocks and chunks of concrete at the Border Patrol agents working the line.

They spotted a few fence jumpers and when they went to take care of it they were met by a mob throwing rocks and concrete at them.

The BP responded with non-lethal pepper balls (are Mexicans immune as a result of their diet of habaneros?) and tear gas canisters.

Two of them didn’t get the message and continued to throw rocks at them.

One of the agents fired two shots, scoring a direct hit on the buttocks. The man’s condition? (I am not making this up) “after undergoing surgery [he] was in delicate, but stable condition,” according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

For those of you who are keeping track, there have been 330 such confrontations at the border so far this year, compared to 254 during all of last year. The natives are restless.

But, mark my words, this agent will wind up in a cell just like Ramos and Campeon. Bush will not protect him. Chertoff will melt like butter. Basham will be unavailable for comment.

And the lawyers at DOJ will be working overtime to prove to Calderon that we don’t condone that kind of behavior by our agents.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Reverence for Life

Ah, yes…another “Save the whales” campaign compared with the abortion statistics.

Well, not whales…actually it is “Save the pelican.” One pelican. On the Golden Gate Bridge. In the middle of the day.

And all the cars stopped and waited for the police to come and rescue the poor bird.


Note the bike riders within a few feet of him. How hard would it be for one of them to shoo him out of the way? Instead two squad cars were dispatched to the scene.

No traffic was stopped for the 208,430 abortions performed in California in 2005. Except maybe to protest the right to kill a fetus. That’s about 27% of all pregnancies in the state.

I stumbled upon a 1946 Time Magazine article. It seems that San Francisco was the place to go if you wanted an abortion in those days. For example, in 1945 there were 18,000 abortions and 16,400 live births.

Listen to the tone of this article: “Fists flying, the D.A. was wading into a sordid abortion racket which he claims lures pregnant women to the Golden Gate city from all over the West Coast.” Time’s changed.

But we’ve certainly developed a love for innocent creatures…like pelicans in traffic.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hey, that's MY stuff

It seems that foreigners are stealing stuff that doesn’t belong to them.

Well, they don’t actually STEAL it; they ARE paying for it.

But because it is subsidized by the government they save about 50% off the price at retail.

The government has stepped in and is now fining these people about 70% of the value. Finally, the government sees a problem and is taking swift action!

(What is he talking about?)

Well, it goes like this. Diesel fuel is selling for about $2.25 a gallon in Mexico these days. Folks are lining up at the border, going into Mexico, and filling up there.

Actually, there are always lines at the border entry points so it can take HOURS to make the trip.

Yankee ingenuity kicked in and they began taking tanks and barrels with them and getting… oh…100 gallons at a time. This caused the Mexican motorists and truckers to complain about long lines and shortages.

And so the Mexican government now fines US drivers when they come down and fill up extra tanks. And they impound your car until you pay up.

I can think of all sorts of ways to make that model work here in the United States. Too bad our politicians are unwilling to defend our sovereignty!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Threats on his life

You’ve all seen the news item of a Florida man arrested for making public statements threatening Obama’s life. What a kook!

But someone pointed out that he was making similar threats on GWBs life at the same event. The talk show host wondered why the man wasn’t arrested for threatening a seated president.

Perhaps the Secret Service decided not to charge him for threats against Bush because the media wouldn’t cover it anyway!

It brings to mind the comment made on the floor of Congress in 1975 after Lynnette Fromme tried to shoot President Gerald Ford. Weary of the Nixon Watergate days someone said something to the effect, “Finally, a President worth assassinating.”

(If anyone can fill in the memory blanks of the exact quote and who said it, please drop in a comment.)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Obama reveals himself

Perhaps you heard candidate Obama explain that he wants to send me a check for $1,000 to help me buy gasoline.

Being the genious he is, he realizes you can't just print money and send people checks. (At least he's out-thought GWB on that one.)

No, these $1,000 checks will be funded by levying new taxes against the filthy-rich, Republican, oil companies.

I heard Paul Harvey explain the problem with that theory over the radio 20 years ago. I can still hear his unique-sounding voice as he said, "Corporations don't pay taxes. People pay taxes."

And someone sent me a message the other day where he lamented that Democrats are calling 4% profit on a gallon of gas "obscene". But they have no problem with 15% taxes on that same gallon of gas.

If Barack spouts off such ideas now in order to attract the entitlement crowd, imagine what he'll do if he gets elected!

Look around, folks. States like California and Illinois are watching as government runs out of money while driving business away. Obama's energy relief plan is a prime example of how things got that way.

We can't afford more government. And we can't trust politicians to meddle in the business world. They seldom make things better and they almost always make things worse.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sad story with a happy ending

Among the saddest movie scenes are those where parents and children get separated. Remember “Sophie’s Choice” or “Not Without My Daughter”?

So I was particularly interested in this story in the San Diego Union Tribune today. It seems that this Mexican couple paid some people in Tijuana to sneak them into the United States.

The deal was that they would get everyone across for $8,200, that’s $2,500 per adult and $1,600 per child.

According to immigration they convinced the parents to let them smuggle the children across using fake birth certificates. The kids were ages 2 and 3. The parents would then cross on foot through the hills.

But the parents got caught by Border Patrol and were simply sent back home.

So, what to do about the kids? They were told by the smugglers that they could buy them back for $7,000 or they would sell the kids to someone else.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the rescue. Posing as relatives, they showed up at a motel. ICE proceeded to arrest two women for their role in human smuggling.

The family is reunited, thanks to Uncle Sam. And with any luck ICE will be able to unravel this ring and put a bunch of people in jail.

As for Mexico’s help in the illegal alien crisis, the Mexican military is pointing rifles at Border Patrol agents again. (Sigh)

Monday, August 4, 2008

The McCain Playbook

Once again alien rants scoops the big boys. I have received a secret copy of the McCain campaign strategy.

Here it is:

Blah blah blah…he has no experience…blah blah blah…I served in Viet Nam…blah blah blah…Do you want a rock star for President?… blah blah blah…Did I mention I was a POW?… blah blah blah…Who do you want to answer the red phone at 3 am?… blah blah blah…I like Hispanics, too… blah blah blah…What does he know about war?… blah blah blah…Compare our moms… blah blah blah…Paris Hilton or Hanoi Hilton. You decide… blah blah blah…The only thing he’s done for this country is keep Alan Keyes out of the Senate… blah blah blah… blah blah blah… blah blah blah…

I propose that we move the election up to September 4th. All in favor raise your hand.