I've been swamped the past week, and probably will be for the rest of this week, so don't expect much from me until about Monday.
But please do have yourself a merry little Halloween!
I've been swamped the past week, and probably will be for the rest of this week, so don't expect much from me until about Monday.
But please do have yourself a merry little Halloween!
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blogging,
other,
video
With no help from my Republican Senators. The DREAM Act would've allowed millions of illegal immigrants to apply for amnesty, and would get it if they said and could provide minimal proof that they were here before the age of 15.
Hot Air has details.
Notice that John 'Amnesty' McCain did not vote.
I don't think we're losing the new moon race. But the Chinese are catching up quickly, and are poised to pass us standing flat-footed.
China launched its first lunar probe Wednesday, an initial step in an ambitious 10-year plan to send a rover to the moon and return it to Earth.
The Chang'e 1 orbiter blasted off with a trail of smoke from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China, according to images from state television.
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china,
other,
science
Kenyan officials are not sure how to handle a troop of rude monkeys that's been making lewd gestures at women, London's Daily Telegraph reports.
"Can the [tourism] minister deploy game rangers ... to deal with the monkey menace?" pleaded local representative Paul Muite in Kenya's national parliament last month, to accompanying laughter. "These creatures have clearly shown that they have no respect for women."
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funny,
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Another incredibly willful suspension of disbelief. This time of the politically incorrect notion that a great portion of criminals are illegal immigrants. Just like terrorists and Muslims, an inconvenient but obvious connection. This guy is defending his open-borders sanctuary city agenda as necessary to fight, get this, the cause of sanctuary city policies, crime.
Circular logic:
"I can just tell you Fairfax County is not going to go the route of some of our neighbors," Connolly, who is seeking a second term as chairman Nov. 6, said during a meeting with Washington Post reporters and editors. "We're not going to demagogue. We're not going to essentially roll back the welcome mat...
Connolly cautioned that such an expansion would drive a dangerous wedge between police and immigrants -- making them reluctant to cooperate with investigations -- and heighten the danger of racial profiling by officers. He said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer would be reluctant to involve his officers.
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crime,
immigration
It certainly sounds good, and it certainly is one of the closest plans from a GOP candidate to what I've been wanting for quite some time.
Below is the meat of the plan, which puts proven results into action, and gives teeth to our immigration enforcers...Attrition through Enforcement. Reduce the number of illegal aliens through increased enforcement against unauthorized alien workers and their employers. Without illegal employment opportunities available, fewer illegal aliens will attempt to enter the country, and many of those illegally in the country now likely will return home. Self-deportation can also be maximized by stepping up the enforcement levels of other existing immigration laws. This course of action offers a reasonable alternative to the false choices currently proposed to deal with the 12 million or more aliens already in the U.S. illegally: either arrest and deport them all, or give them all amnesty. Attrition through enforcement is a more reasonable and achievable solution, but this approach requires additional resources for enforcement and border security:
He'll most definitely have problems getting this through assuming he's elected president. Even in the unlikely chance the Republicans take back Congress, Thompson will face opposition from amnesty RINOs as well as stubborn Democrats. Given the nature of hostility toward all things immigration, this is the most realistic anti-illegal immigration plan I've seen yet. And it's nothing special. It's a breath of fresh commonsense most Americans have been asking for, for the better part of the last decade.
1. Doubling ICE agents handling interior enforcement, increasing the Border Patrol to at least 25,000 agents, and increasing detention space to incarcerate illegal aliens we arrest rather than letting them go with a promise to show up later for legal proceedings against them.
2. Adding resources for the Department of Justice to prosecute alien smugglers, people involved in trafficking in false identification documents, and previously deported felons.
3. Maximizing efforts to prosecute and convict members of criminal alien gangs, such as MS-13 and affiliated gangs. These gangs have brought unusual levels of violence to more than 30 U.S. states and have also become very active in drug-smuggling, gun-smuggling, and alien-smuggling.
4. Implementing fully and making greater use of the expedited removal process already allowed under federal law.
5. Enabling the Social Security Administration to share relevant information with immigration and law enforcement personnel in a manner that will support effective interior enforcement efforts.
Enforce Existing Federal Laws. Enforce the laws Congress has already enacted to prevent illegal aliens from unlawfully benefiting from their presence in the country:
1. End Sanctuary Cities by cutting off discretionary federal grant funds as appropriate to any community that, by law, ordinance, executive order, or other formal policy directs its public officials not to comply with the provisions of 8 USC 1373 and 8 USC 1644, which prohibit any state or local government from restricting in any way communications with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States.
2. Deny discretionary Federal education grants as appropriate to public universities that violate federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens without also offering identical benefits to United States citizens, regardless of whether or not they live in the state, as required by 8 USC 1623.
3. Deny discretionary Federal grants as appropriate to states and local governments that violate federal law by offering public benefits to illegal aliens, as prohibited by 8 USC 1621(a).
This should be interesting... maybe:
Sunday is when the Giants and the Miami Dolphins play the National Football League’s first regular-season game held overseas, at sold-out Wembley Stadium in London. For the most American of sports leagues, it is a trial balloon to uncharted territory.
If the game goes well — meaning, mostly, that owners of the league’s 32 teams see that it can cause a happy ruckus in London without the trip feeling foreign to the teams involved — the N.F.L. will likely play two overseas games each of the next four seasons, as part of a resolution already approved by owners.
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America,
britain,
football
I was emailed by Penguin with an opportunity to review this new book about one immigration enforcement agent's story. I'm glad I took up the offer.
From the U.S. immigration bureaucracy to the Supreme Court, America's illegal immigration problem as many of us are well aware, is boiling over with no end in sight, nor with help from the politicians. In The Deporter, former Deportation Officer Ames Holbrook provides a true and compelling account of what it's like on the deportation side of the national immigration nightmare.
The Deporter gives perspective from the midst of the fallout of the insane and emasculated U.S. immigration policies. While Mr. Holbrook pushes to deport murdering and kidnapping criminal aliens whose governments don't want them, our own government pushes back. With a clear, but cumbersome sense of duty, Mr. Holbrook in essence, becomes the Jack Bauer of Immigration Enforcement.
It's a job filled with moral dilemmas; a job where agent Ames Holbrook tries to make sense of his conflicting duty where policy undermines objective. Contrary to the federal government, Ames finds ways to protect the American people.
It was hard to put the book down, and if you thought America's immigration system was bad, wait until you read The Deporter. It is a stirring read.
Check it out at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
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bureaucracy,
crime,
immigration,
other,
police
A big thanks to a staunch pro-LEO and largely pro-Bush Patterico for blogging about this. Apparently, an Egyptian-American man was being questioned by the FBI, and had his family threatened to be deported to Egypt to be tortured if he did not cooperate. This appalling information came out in a recent 2nd Circuit Court opinion published on the web, which was soon thereafter taken down. But the internet never forgets:
Higazy alleges that during the polygraph, Templeton told him that he should cooperate, and explained that if Higazy did not cooperate, the FBI would make his brother “live in scrutiny” and would “make sure that Egyptian security gives [his] family hell.” Templeton later admitted that he knew how the Egyptian security forces operated: “that they had a security service, that their laws are different than ours, that they are probably allowed to do things in that country where they don’t advise people of their rights, they don’t – yeah, probably about torture, sure.” Higazy later said, “I knew that I couldn’t prove my innocence, and I knew that my family was in danger.” He explained that “[t]he only thing that went through my head was oh, my God, I am screwed and my family’s in danger. If I say this device is mine, I’m screwed and my family is going to be safe. If I say this device is not mine, I’m screwed and my family’s in danger. And Agent Templeton made it quite clear that cooperate had to mean saying something else other than this device is not mine.”
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freedom,
orwellian,
other,
terrorism
Here's video of the latest GOP debate in Florida:
Part 1:
The rest below the jump
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
Part 8:
Part 9:
Part 10:
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comments
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elections,
republicans,
video
Tomorrow I'll be posting my review of The Deporter by Ames Holbrook. My Blogs4Borders co-founders are working on an interview with him. He's an interesting guy and his book was a great read.
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blogging,
immigration,
other
[M]iddle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable, even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it every month: it turns free-born citizens into enervated wards of the Nanny State.
Good.
I don't know how much ineptness and corruption a state can take, but Louisiana sure took a great deal of it. Between Governor Blanco and Mayor "Chocolate City" Nagin, New Orleans was a perfect example of idiots in over their head, quick to criticize the characteristically slow feds for their own incompetence. But things change:
...in a state that has long been stereotyped as corrupt and supportive of the good 'ole boy system, Jindal's victory is a sign that maybe, if the state is ever going to be turned around, now is the time to do it. He has vowed to call a special session of the legislature shortly after his inauguration to "pass ethics reforms with real teeth" and has promised to institute a variety of 10- to 31-point plans that reflect his policy wonkiness. As he put it on Saturday: "The rest of the country, keep your eyes on Louisiana."
I'd seen an image almost exactly like this in a coffee shop today, so I can't take credit for the idea. I searched all over for it on the net but came up empty handed, so I created my own, which is not quite as good as the one I saw, but very close.
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democrats,
elections,
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Yet another staunch liberal college student writes for more heavy gun regulation, immediately after its fallacy hits him square in the nose.
I just can't grasp how he goes from this:
Single mothers have guns and weary adults who fear gang violence have guns. Citizens who have the constitutional right to bear arms are bearing these arms, but these specific arms are not the arms that go arm in arm with the violence on the streets.To this:
...I absolutely think guns need to be regulated - heavily regulated.After a little more back and forth, he concludes with:
"Let me guess: You think guns don't kill people; you think people kill people. Let me tell you what I think: I think people with guns kill people."So after saying lawful gun owners are not part of the violence on the street, after acknowledging nightly murders and school shootings, and after his friend shows concern for his or her life while walking the streets, the only conclusion must be more gun control. I think his cognitive dissonance is showing.
Oh, the awful sight of the thing!
A second-grader's artistic effort has got him in trouble.
Seven-year-old Kyle Walker was suspended for one day last week by school officials in Cape May County for drawing a stick figure shooting a gun.
His mother told The Press of Atlantic City that officials at Dennis Township Primary School told her the drawing violated a zero-tolerance policy for guns.
An excellent opinion piece by Larry Elder on gun-free zones and their inability to prevent, let alone stop, a shooting. Here's a taste:
Israel gets it. Since the 1970s, on school campuses in Israel, policy requires teachers and parent aides to arm themselves with semi-automatic weapons. The result? School shootings have plummeted to zero. [Emphasis added]Read the whole thing.
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2nd amendment,
crime
I really don't know what to say other than I wish our spies were half as talented as Israel's. But we don't want to get our hands dirty.
Israeli officials believed that a target their forces bombed inside Syria last month was a nuclear facility, because they had detailed photographs taken by a possible spy inside the complex, ABC News has learned.
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intelligence,
israel,
nukes,
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What can I say, it's a slow news day:
A kamikaze squirrel fell from the sky and detonated a Bayonne woman's car yesterday, police said today.
Lindsey Millar, 23, and her brother, Tony, 22, were both home Wednesday at about 12:45 p.m. when Lindsey's car suddenly started burning outside their 42nd Street home.
Tony Millar said firefighters told them it was the work of a buck-toothed saboteur that had been gnawing on overhead power lines connected to a transformer directly above the 2006 Toyota Camry.
"The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was," Tony Millar said. "The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car.
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funny,
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Rush's letter brings in over $2mil for the Marine corps-law enforcement charity. That'll be over $4 million for the charity since Rush promised to match it.
And Harry Reid eats crow.
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democrats,
military,
other
So a burglar robs this couple's house who were on vacation, trashes the place, gets so comfortable he wears the owner's cap as he rummages around, and gets caught by literally walking in to the owner upon their return. And what happens next is pure gold:
Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.I could have thought of a few more chores for him to do... with a toothbrush.
"We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabi-nets onto the floor," Tiffany McKinnon said.
When police arrived, Bullock complained about being forced to clean the home at gunpoint.
"This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house," she said. "The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead."
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2nd amendment,
crime
So the savior of Pakistan is welcomed with a failed, but brutal assassination attempt. Over 100 dead and counting. I'm not suspecting him, but I seriously doubt President Pervez Musharraf, being on thin ice and all, could get behind something like this.
Two bombs exploded Thursday night just seconds apart and feet from a truck carrying the returning opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, narrowly missing her but killing scores of people and bloodying a triumphal homecoming after eight years in exile.This is not something we Americans can just shrug off, and say, well there's another shit-hole country with problems, whatchagonna do?
Various reports said up to 126 were killed and some 150 were wounded, including civilians and party workers. In the initial chaos, however, the Interior Ministry could only confirm 70 deaths.
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india,
nukes,
pakistan,
terrorism
The weakest link.
Republican Sam Brownback will drop out of the 2008 presidential campaign on Friday, people close to the Kansas senator said Thursday.
Brownback, a longshot conservative contender, had trouble raising money to compete in the race. He is expected announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.
Mitt knows how to say the right things; it's just too bad he doesn't have the record to back up the rhetoric:
"The governor believes we ought to withdraw completely from the U.N. Human Rights Council, and that means ending our financial support in addition to not seeking a seat on the council," Fehrnstrom said. "We should not legitimize the council, either with financial or diplomatic support."Bingo. Considering the Human Rights Council is a good example of human rights violators, Romney is on solid ground here.
Romney also said he would support a new "coalition of the free nations of the world and bring those nations together so that we can act together."
"We should develop some of our own — if you will — forums and alliances or groups that have the ability to actually watch out for the world and do what's right," Romney said.
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elections,
republicans,
UN
Such good sports, the Chinese are:
US Internet search engines in China were being hijacked and directed to Chinese-owned Baidu, analysts said Wednesday, speculating that this may be retaliation for the White House award to exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.Kind of reminds me of Turkey throwing a conniption fit over the genocide bill. Especially coming after these words;
Analysts at Search Engine Roundtable, a website focusing on Internet search, said Chinese users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft websites were being directed to the Chinese search engine.
"It seems like China is fed up with the US, so as a way to fight back, they redirected virtually all search traffic from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to Baidu, the Chinese based search engine," the analysts wrote.
The United States has "gravely undermined" relations with China by giving the Dalai Lama an award, the Chinese government said Thursday.So, when things are relatively good with the Chinese, they simply hack our military. But when we shed light on their abuses, they hijack our businesses in China. I'm starting to warm to Duncan Hunter's idea of reciprocal trade practices.
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china,
economics
I could be snarky, but at least the cops like the one in this story are concentrating on physical superiority when dealing with resistant criminals, rather than other means.
It doesn't justify steroids, but some neighborhoods aren't simply going to go from cesspool to exemplary until we take on the drug epidemic and African Americans' collective hatred of cops.
But someone tell me how the legalization of crack-cocaine and heroine, the most addictive and damaging drugs in America, is going to make things better? If it has to do with the liberty to kill oneself in the most societally destructive way possible, do me a favor and don't comment.
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crime,
police,
social policy
It keeps your head warm in the winter, it's pleasing to fundamentalist Muslims, and it's easier to rob banks:
Someone dressed in a burgundy burka walked into the People’s Bank at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, showed the teller a handgun and demanded money.Via Jawa Report
The robber then took off down N.C. 90 in a burgundy sport utility vehicle.
Authorities are looking into whether this bank robbery can be connected to one in Morganton.
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crime,
islam
"You don't have money to fund the war on children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if he can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement."How very professional of you Congressman Fortney “Pete” Stark. I have some words for you, but I don't have the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause, nor do I have the ability to compartmentalize my civility when it's convenient, so lucky you.
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democrats,
health care,
iraq,
military,
video
Maybe now someone will listen.
Latinos are good people. They aren't in lock step with liberals because they've been told they're an oppressed minority, that Whitey's keeping 'em down. Most I know are relatively conservative, apolitical, and would vote for whoever is the stronger leader.
This is a group Republicans don't have to win over with government handouts and amnesty.
Why do I find this not surprising:
According to the solitary news source I found searching Google News, which probably got all of its information from blogs, the man did nothing more than videotape the police engaged in a warrantless search, and was tasered because he refused to drop the camera, which you know, "could be used as a weapon."
A lawsuit is the least that should happen. A public apology, a few firings, and more civil liberty training I think are in order.
Via Instapundit
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orwellian,
police,
video
Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Well look at the bright side, at least those calling the U.S. an evil hegemony manipulating the world economy, can't really say that anymore.
The expansion of ties between Iraq and Iran comes as the United States and Iran clash on nuclear issues and about what American officials have repeatedly said is Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq. American officials have charged that Iranians, through the international military wing known as the Quds Force, are particularly active in support of elite elements of the Mahdi Army, a militia largely controlled by Mr. Sadr.I'm a libertarian until its dogma crosses into the suicidal. Not even Ron Paul would accept a bid on our military computer contracts from China, so why, if we have to stay there for security, do we have Iraq bidding out over a billion in contracts to our enemies? Because they're sovereign? If that's the case we need to leave, because then they're obviously safe enough to handle spitting on us, while we handle their security.
An American military official in Baghdad said that while he had no specific knowledge of the power plant contracts, any expansion of Iranian interests was a concern for the military here.
“We are of course carefully watching Iran’s overall presence here in Iraq,” the military official said. “As you know, it’s not always as it appears. Their Quds Force routinely uses the cover of a business to mask their real purpose as an intelligence operative.”
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china,
iran,
iraq
From the Washington Times:
A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the last year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.Homeland insecurity inaction.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took the Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took one more week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency.
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comments
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mexico,
other
DNA Scientist: Blacks less intelligent than Whites
And he's a Democrat.
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comments
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other,
science
Story here.
Now that it's been confirmed by outside analysts, and a brief comment from a Syrian official, which of course, is now being blamed on a misquote, nuclear proliferation is already underway. What the U.S. and the rest of the Western world do with Iran will have serious consequences. Inaction will mean tacit acceptance of proliferation, and it'd simply be a matter of time before Israeli intel misses one.
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intelligence,
iran,
nukes,
syria
Sure why not.
But I think this New York Times blog takes it way too seriously.
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elections,
funny,
other,
video
Sharia law and consequently, disarmament:
Under the Ottoman Empire, Armenians, who are mostly Christian, had not been allowed to own firearms. This was standard practice for Christians and Jews throughout the Empire, under sharia law for the “Dhimmi” — Christians and Jews (and sometimes other faiths) who were allowed to retain their religion, provided that they lived in subordination.Via David Hardy
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comments
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2nd amendment,
islam,
turkey
