North Korea gathering cellular intelligence (2008)

Americans should be very thankful that we have a democracy and not a dictatorship ran by a psychopathic ruler Kim Jong-il, or Kim Jong Il, in North Korea.

Any person entering North Korea under orders of Kim Jong-il has to leave their cell phone with government officials at the port of entry into the country. To enforce this rule, all persons and property is searched for contraband. If your “monitor” who stays with you the entire times catches you with contraband a prison sentence is certain. And as you can guess, there will be peaking done on your electronics. After the person has left the port of entry and is in North Korea the cell phone is sent by a military courier to a military intelligence station. Once at the station the phone undergoes both a physical and data inspection for foreign intelligence connections (ie. MI5, CIA, ect.). All data including the call logs, address book, photos, emails, passwords, phone ID, SIM, and more, is saved to a computer system to be searched, cross-referenced, and stored forever.

Data recover software is also ran on the phone memory, SIM, and any SD memory in an attempt to recover any deleted files still available.

I know this for a fact since I just returned from North Korea on a business trip to find my phone completely erased, even the firmware software the phone needs to run. I was told ahead of time that I would have “surrender “my cell phone upon entry into the country, so out of security concerns for my company I enabled a password entered when the phone is turned on or used, and all files on my SD card were encrypted. When I “surrendered” the phone it was operational but off. But when I got it back it was dead.

When I took it into one of my provider’s stores, the rep. said he had never seen a phone like this with no software what so ever, and a phone would have to be sent, since my old phone was trash since it would have to be reprogrammed in the factory.

Nine Mexican Police Officers Arrested on Drug Charges Just South of Texas Border

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican soldiers arrested nine police officers who were allegedly carrying drugs in their patrol cars in the violence-plagued city of Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas.

The officers were detained over the weekend while carrying marijuana and radios with non-police frequencies, Mayor Jose Reyes and municipal Public Safety Department spokesman Jaime Torres said Monday.

"We know there are officers who aren't upright and are breaking the law," Reyes said. "Our job is to identify them and fire them, and to support the federal authorities in their efforts."

Last week, the government sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to crack down on soaring violence in the border state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located.

About 200 people have been killed in the city of 1.3 million so far this year, and 47 policemen have resigned or requested retirement in the last month.

Chihuahua is also home to the town of Palomas, across from Columbus, New Mexico, where at least 40 people have been killed since Jan. 1. Palomas' police chief recently sought asylum in the U.S. after his deputies abandoned him and he received death threats.

[SOURCE]

Adjacent-channel interference
A second impairment common in a wireless communications channel is interference from adjacent carriers. While government regulations and standards bodies regulate emissions into adjacent bands to limit interference, regulations do not entirely eliminate it. As a result, modem receivers apply filtering to account for adjacent-channel interference. In Figure 3, a single tone adjacent to a WCDMA carrier is illustrated.
The impact of interference on the modulated signal depends upon both the interference power and its frequency offset. In general, interference is more problematic when it is higher in power and closer to the band of interest. To illustrate this, we compare constellation plots of a 16-QAM signal in the presence of a single-tone carrier that is 4 MHz from the center frequency.
As Figure 4 illustrates, EVM increases with the power of the adjacent-channel interference. In the rightmost graph, we see that as EVM increases dramatically the receiver loses carrier lock.

AT&T loses use of arbitration clause, users can take company to court

It seems that every company on the planet would like to be able and handle all complaints or cases pending against them in arbitration, at least in AT&T's case, that's still an option but is not the only option not after a new court ruling.

AT&T had a little known clause in its service contracts that said if you made use of their service you lost your right to bring a class action lawsuit against the company and instead were forced to go through arbitration. No more, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the clause "unconscionable" and any pending cases like this can now make it to a real court of law.

This was also the case while Cingular was still Cingular and since being taken over by AT&T then of course, it will apply to any case pending that was started under Cingular. Though, I'm not aware of any, I do know a number of people who are unhappy with AT&T service and a few problems associated with the iPhone, hey, AT&T, see you in court. Not that I would be foolish enough to make use of AT&T's service UNLESS I bought an iPhone and even then it doesn't completely make up for the below average service provided by the company.

Comcast is also trying something similar, with this ruling against AT&T it paves the way for the courts to nullify these clauses that other companies could be/are using as well.

Moore's movie Sicko, a gross Over-exaggeration

Delays make the universal system not quite as primo as Sicko says. Shortly before Christmas last year, Julie Mason of Ottawa received devastating news. She had ovarian cancer. Her husband's prostate cancer had returned. The costs of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments could have been as overwhelming as the diagnoses. To date, though, the Masons' out-of-pocket expenses have been about $266, even though their story is not typical.

Now cancer-free, the Masons are among the few Canadians who rave about their national health care system - a system also extolled in Michael Moore's new movie, Sicko, as one of the world's best. Michael Moore’s controversial film slams the U.S. approach to health care, portraying it as a cold-hearted, profit-driven nightmare that dumps the uninsured out on the street and looks for any excuse to deny benefits even to those who can afford coverage.

By contrast, Moore paints the rosiest of pictures in Canada, France, Britain and Cuba, where every citizen, regardless of income or "pre-existing" condition, is entitled to necessary health care at government expense.

Among Sicko's most striking examples: When a Canadian worker accidentally severed all five fingers on one hand, the Canadian health care system picked up the entire tab of reattaching them. When an uninsured American sliced off two fingertips in an electric saw accident, he could afford to get only one reattached - at a cost of $12,000.

But is health care in other places really as terrific as Sicko suggests? A closer look at Canada - a country similar in history and culture to the United States - reveals a system that while truly classless, suffers from doctor shortages, restrictions on foreign nationals, long waiting times and hidden costs in the form of higher taxes and "health premiums."

"It's a wonderful system, but unfortunately it's overloaded at the moment," says Gerry Brissenden, who at 75 divides his time between Ontario and St. Petersburg as president of the Canadian Snowbird Association. Under Canada's Health Act, Brissenden and his 33-million fellow citizens are entitled to all necessary physician and hospital services, including prescription drugs. But they usually must pay for any drugs outside the hospital. Canada's health care system generally does not cover dental or eye care, however. And a shortage of diagnostic equipment - Canada has 4.5 MRIs per million people compared with 8.6 in the United States - is one reason patients often wait months for tests and nonemergency surgery.

As a result of such delays, a growing number of Canadians cross the border for tests or pay for testing at private clinics in their own country. Despite concern that "queue jumping" undermines the system's fairness, Canada's Supreme Court in 2005 struck down a Quebec law that banned people from using private insurance to pay for MRIs, cataract operations and other government-covered procedures.

"Access to a waiting list is not the same thing as access to health care," the court said, noting that Canadians had suffered and even died because of long waits.

Brissenden, for example, had his broken wrist in a cast for eight weeks before he could get an appointment with a doctor to replace two bones with a metal plate. If he could change one thing about Canada's system, it would be imposing a small charge for doctor visits.

Another reason for lengthy waits is a shortage of doctors in rural areas and in certain specialities like obstetrics and gynecology. Concerned that Canada might produce too many doctors, the federal and provincial governments in the early '90s cut back on medical school admissions and made it harder for foreign doctors to be licensed. About the same time, thousands of Canadian-born doctors and nurses left the country, lured by attractive bonuses to HMOs and for- profit hospitals in the United States.

"The big problem with our system - and part of it relates to the planning of a decade ago - is that our waiting times are considered unacceptable for routine and elective procedures," says Colin McMillan, a cardiologist and president of the Canadian Medical Association. "There are just not enough doctor and nurses to serve the population." Though the "brain drain" has largely stopped and medical school admissions are returning to pre-'90s levels, McMillan says patients in his province, Prince Edward Island, can still wait six months to see a consultant. "It should be four to six weeks," he says.

After waiting about a year for a hip replacement, Sharon Sholzberg-Gray dreaded another long wait - this time for two knee replacements. But as the weeks ticked by, she lost so much weight that her knees stopped hurting. "Now I don't need my knees replaced and I've saved the health system two knee replacement operations," says Sholzberg-Gray, president of the Canadian Healthcare Association.

The association represents hospitals, which are struggling with the fearsome cost of new technology and wonder drugs, particularly for cancer treatment. A recent series in the Ottawa Citizen on how hospitals use tax money found that drug costs rose 82 percent in just three years and the cost of new medical and surgical equipment zoomed 56 percent, far outpacing any other area of hospital spending.

The pressure on hospitals will only increase as aging baby boomers demand more and better health services - a strong argument for preventive care and healthy lifestyles, Sholzberg-Gray says. "No health system in the world is going to be able to be sustained unless people focus on keeping a healthy weight, eating healthy and reducing the amount of diabetes," she said. "But right now the problem, as with any health system, is we could use more money."

Although the United States spends almost twice as much on health care per person, Canada's costs are rising so fast that the government of Ontario, the most populous province, began deducting a "health premium" from wage and pension checks in 2004 to pay for more doctors, nurses and hospital beds. The premium is based on income and can be as much as $900 Canadian (about $852 U.S.).

Canadians also pay far more sales tax than Americans, 14 percent in Ontario compared with 6 or 7 percent in Florida, and only a small amount of that tax money in Canada goes to health care.

Defining cronyism for an ignorant Hillary Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton are absolutely outraged that President Bush granted executive clemency to Scooter Libby, recently convicted of making false statements under oath. They obviously believe that Libby should serve his thirty month sentence.

Does that mean that they now think that perjurers should go to jail? Or have they simply forgotten about Bill Clinton’s own plea agreement in the last hours of his presidency — for making false statements under oath? Some people would call that perjury.

One would have thought that Hillary and Bill Clinton wouldn’t touch the Libby executive clemency issue with a ten-foot pole — for lots of reasons.

After all, Bill Clinton has a well-earned reputation as the king of pardons — granting 140 of them during his last minutes in office — with many going to terrorists, people who had paid Hillary’s brothers to arrange for pardons, contributed money or key support to Hillary’s Senate campaign, given the Clintons expensive personal gifts, and/or made large contributions to Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library. One of the pardons went to Bill’s own brother, Roger, while another went to Susan MacDougal, who kept quiet about Clinton during the Whitewater trial.

Given the disgraceful Clinton record on pardons, most reasonable people would have kept quiet — especially when Libby’s offense was so similar to Bill’s own criminal conviction. But the self-righteous former first couple couldn’t resist. Once the clemency was announced, Hillary immediately attacked President Bush, saying, "This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice.”

Hey, Hillary, do you understand what cronyism really means?

Cronyism is favoritism shown to friends and supporters without regard to their qualifications. And that’s what Bill Clinton’s pardons were all about. Except, as usual, the Clintons went way over the top. So, in addition to granting pardons to undeserving friends, Bill Clinton also pardoned undeserving strangers who paid his family, friends, campaign coffers, and presidential library.

Now Bill and Hillary claim that his highly controversial pardons were “different” than the Libby clemency.

He’s absolutely right ...

The big difference was that many of the Clinton pardons were patently bought and paid for — something event he Clintons don’t claim to be the case in the Libby commutation.

Hillary’s brothers were paid more than $500,000 to lobby the president for pardons that were then granted to con artists and drug dealers. For a fee of $400,000, Hugh Rodham successfully pushed for a pardon for drug kingpin Carlos Anabel Vignali, convicted of shipping a half-ton of cocaine from L.A. to Minnesota. His father was a big contributor to the Democratic Party — he gave more than $150,000 to the Los Angeles Democrats. Obviously, the investment was a shrewd one.

That’s cronyism, Hillary. Get it?

Tony Rodham advocated a pardon for Edgar and Vanna Jo Gregory. The Gregorys, who owned a carnival company, defrauded a federal bank. When the pardon was publicized, Hillary stated that Tony was “not paid” by the Gregorys for his work on the pardon. Tony repeated that line on the Larry King Show.

After an investigation, the House Government Operations Committee disagreed and announced that Hillary’s statement was inaccurate. Now, a federal bankruptcy court overseeing the carnival company’s bankruptcy is about to rule on whether over $100,000 paid to Tony Rodham at the time of the pardons was a loan or payment for “consulting.”

The Gregorys contributed over $100,000 to Hillary’s campaign and other Democratic causes. These folks were well known to the Clintons — they visited them at Camp David and were hired to stage two carnivals on the White House grounds — paid for by the taxpayers.

That’s cronyism, Hillary.

When the Rodham brothers’ exploits were made public, Bill and Hillary announced that they were “shocked and saddened” by the disclosure. At the time of the pardons, the Rodham brothers were actually living in the White House with the Clintons and had made contact with the highest level of presidential assistants. But the Clintons claimed that they were totally unaware of what Hugh and Tony were doing.

But, it wasn’t just Hillary’s family who benefited from the Clinton cronyism. Bill’s brother Roger was pardoned for his drug conviction, and he was allegedly paid $30,000 to promote six felons — although those pardons were never granted.

That’s cronyism, Hillary.

The most outrageous Clinton pardons went to sixteen members of the terrorist gang, the FALN, a Puerto Rican nationalist group responsible for over 130 bombings in the U.S. — attacking the N.Y. office of the FBI, military recruiting headquarters, and even former president Jimmy Carter’s Chicago campaign office. Six people died and dozens more were injured as a result of FALN’s actions. These terrorists never even asked for a pardon, but because Hillary wanted to ingratiate herself with the Hispanic population in New York during her first Senate race, they were suddenly granted a commutation of their sentences.

Although the commutations were opposed by the FBI and the Clinton Justice Department, Bill Clinton granted them to all 16 terrorists. Once again, Hillary claimed to have “no involvement in or prior knowledge of the decision.” Her statement is ridiculous. Two days before the announcement of the pardons, New York City Councilman Jose Rivera personally presented Hillary with a packet of materials including a letter asking her to “speak to the president and ask him to consider granting executive clemency to the prisoners.” What a coincidence — the sentences were immediately commuted!

Hillary, that’s another example of cronyism.

Joe Connor, the son of one of the innocent men killed by the FALN terrorists at the Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan, put it this way:

“The Clinton family traded the release of terrorists for votes, votes that were promised to be delivered by New York politicians to Hillary for senate and Gore for president. That was clear.”

That’s cronyism, Hillary.

And Hillary actually has the audacity to accuse President Bush of cronyism! This woman has no shame.

Then, of course, there was also Marc Rich, the fugitive oil broker who renounced his American citizenship. Rich was illegally buying oil from Iran during the American trade embargo and hid the $200 million in trading (and over $100 million in profits) with Iraq using dummy transactions in off-shore corporations.

Ironically, Scooter Libby was one of Rich’s lawyers, while Rudy Giuliani was the U.S. Attorney who brought the indictment. Amazingly, the U.S. Attorney’s Office was never contacted by the White House for input into the pardon decision. Here’s what the prosecuting attorney had to say about the pardon:

“I cannot imagine two people that were less suited for a presidential pardon than Marc Rich and Pincus Green[the co-defendant]. It is inconceivable that President Clinton chose to pardon the two biggest tax cheats in the history of the United States who had renounced their citizenship, been fugitives for seventeen years, and who had traded with the Iranians during the hostage crisis. While I do not know what motivated President Clinton to pardon Rich and Green, I can state that it is implausible that those pardons were based on his evaluation of the merits of the case...” [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardonsex8.htm]

Interestingly, Rich’s wife bought furniture for the Clinton’s Chappaqua home and contributed at least $450,000 to the Clinton Library.

That’s cronyism, Hillary.

Finally, there were the four New Square pardons. There, the Hasidic defendants were convicted of pocketing $40 million of federal scholarship money. Hillary visited the community, and on Election Day the community supported Hillary 1400 to 12. Weeks later, on December 22, 2000, President Clinton met with the New Square leaders to discuss a pardon. Hillary attended the meeting, but claims that she did not speak.

Apparently, she didn’t have to — the pardons were granted.

That’s cronyism, Hillary!

Iran admits having material for A-Bomb

Iran has produced more than 220 pounds of enriched uranium, the country's interior minister was quoted Friday (6/22/07) as saying about the process that can make fuel for civilian energy or fissile material for a bomb. The ISNA news agency carried comments by Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, who said that Iran now has 3,000 hooked-up centrifuges actively enriching uranium. And what was the IAEA doing during this time of failure of oversight?

"In the first steps, we were halted and they (the West) did not allow our only 20 centrifuge machines to work," Pourmohammadi said. "But right now, 3,000 of the machines have been operational and more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of enriched uranium has been ready and stored."

In Vienna, a diplomat familiar with Iran's enrichment activities said the interior minister appeared to be talking about "material ... over the past two years" that Iran has produced.
Pourmohammadi also said that more than 165 tons of primary materials of uranium gas have been stored in the Iranian nuclear facilities. Centrifuge machines spin uranium hexafluoride gas and convert it into enriched uranium. Pourmohammadi did not elaborate on the percentage of enrichment of the stored enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, uranium can be used for both nuclear fuel and nuclear weaponry. Experts say about 1,100 pounds of enriched uranium would be needed for one bomb.

The comments came as Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, was scheduled to meet Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna, Austria, for talks expected to push for a new round of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. It was hoped that the meetings could find a way to bridge the impasse over Iran's rejection of U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend enrichment.

The United States and some of its allies fear that Iran is using its nuclear program as a cover to produce weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying it only seeks to generate electricity. In a report last month, the U.N. nuclear watchdog provided the potential trigger for a new, third round of U.N. sanctions, saying that Iran continued to defy the Security Council by expanding its enrichment activities. The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Iran in December and modestly increased them in March.

Lawmakers Probe Prosecution of Border Agents Who Shot Mexican Drug Runner

Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill to investigate the prosecution of two former Border Patrol agents doing prison time for their on-duty shooting of a Mexican man who was transporting drugs into the United States.

Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years, respectively, for the non-fatal shooting in 2005 of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. The agents shot Davila in the buttocks as he was transporting more than 700 pounds of marijuana into the United States through Fabens, Texas.

Davila was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against the agents.

Now the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight is organizing a hearing on any influence the Mexican government may have had on prosecuting Compean and Ramos.

Rep. Bill Delahunt, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, said a formal invitation to testify will be also be sent to U.S. prosecutor Johnny Sutton "so there will be no confusion as to whether he’s available or whether he’s willing to appear."

California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee who requested the hearing, is asking for information from the State and Homeland Security departments about possible contact the Mexican government made with the U.S. government about the case.

Rohrabacher’s office has been trying to get information from the Justice and Homeland Security departments about Davila’s border crossing and parole documents to determine whether he delivered another load of marijuana in Texas in October 2005, after he entered the U.S. to have surgery by U.S. Army doctors to repair his shattered urethra, a wound he sustained during the arrest.

"We’ve been stonewalled unbelievably," said Rohrabacher spokeswoman Tara Setmayer, particularly about her office’s request for correspondence from the agency investigator in the case and for details of Davila’s immunity agreement.

"It’s absurd … they claim the reason for the denial of that information is because of the privacy act. They require a privacy waiver to be signed by the drug smuggler before they can release that information.

"We want to find out what type of access he had to the country and if it was unfettered access, why would our government grant him such a privilege and also, because of the second drug bust, the relationship between that second drug bust and the dates he was supposed to have surgery in Texas."

Documents prepared by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and obtained by FOXNews.com show that on Oct. 22, 2005, Davila was identified by a witness as the driver of a 1990 Chevy Astro van that contained six bundles — approximately 752.8 pounds — of marijuana. He allegedly dropped off the load around 3 p.m. at the home of a man in Clint, Texas. The man described the van’s driver to DEA investigators, saying he was a "Mexican male, 5’10", dark skin, 20-30 years of age, short hair, and has a colostomy bag," according to the DEA documents.

Rohrabacher’s office has also been asking why residents of the Clint, Texas, home, where the so-called "October load" was stashed, were not charged.

Sutton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, left open the door of possibility that charges could still come from that incident.

"The bottom line is, we are still arresting people out of that event," Sutton told FOXNews.com. "We’ve arrested a number of suspects out of that investigation and the investigation is ongoing."

As for Davila, Sutton said: "As soon as we have sufficient, competent admissible evidence to charge him with a crime, we will do it."

Justice Department spokeswoman Kimberly Smith said her department is "committed to working with Congress to answer questions and educate the public on the facts of the Ramos/Compean prosecution and has provided numerous documents explaining the court record and facts of the case to members of Congress," including statements, transcripts and other information.

"We will continue to provide materials and answer questions pursuant to Department of Justice regulations and guidelines," she added.

But Delahunt told FOXNews.com: "We continue to have difficulty in terms of ascertaining a date and there has been some indication that since there’s an appeal, there was hesitation on having him testify."

Delahunt said he also met with the Mexican ambassador privately to discuss the matter, but foreign officials are prevented by protocol and the practices of the Mexican government from testifying to the U.S. Congress. As a matter of course, the congressman added, "We do not have foreign government representatives at hearings."

"I’ve met with the Mexican ambassador. I’ve indicated to other members, including Mr. Rohrabacher, that the Mexican ambassador would be willing to meet with him and other members of Congress privately and we’re making an effort to arrange that," Delahunt said.

As for his invitation, Sutton said he has not yet been formally asked to appear.

"I’m absolutely willing to testify before Congress and cooperate in any way with any congressional hearings or invest, subject of course, to Department of Justice regulations, rules and policy," Sutton said, adding that he would not be allowed to talk about anything that could jeopardize pending cases. "But we also need to do the people’s business and investigate crimes and prosecute criminals."

The department "will carefully consider any invitation for witnesses should Congress choose to hold hearings," Smith added.

Smith said both Sutton and Justice officials "have actively sought to educate members of Congress and the American public about the facts of the Ramos/Compean prosecution."

In a separate incident, the Mexican consulate sent a letter to Edwards County Sheriff Don Letsinger in Texas, and the FBI, pushing for Deputy Gilmer Hernandez to be prosecuted.

On April 14, 2005, Hernandez shot at an SUV full of illegal immigrants in Rocksprings as it sped off while he tried to stop it for running a red light. One of the bullets shattered the teeth of a woman inside the SUV. Hernandez reported the incident, was jailed for 266 days, and the immigrants now may be suing the U.S. government.

"Based on the Consular Convention between Mexico and the United States and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Consulate of Mexico is entitled to represent, protect and defend the rights of Mexican nationals in this country," the Mexican consul wrote to Letsinger, Hernandez’s boss, in a letter obtained by FOXNews.com. "That is the care of my country that this kind of incidents against our nationals, do not remain unpunished."

Sutton prosecuted that case as well.

Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

The House Judiciary Committee also may take up the issue of federal sentencing guidelines known as "924c" in light of recent cases involving law enforcement on the border. It’s those guidelines that called for 10-year sentences for Compean and Ramos for shooting at someone who was running away.

The section of the U.S. Criminal Code says "during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime," any person who uses or carries a firearm should be sentenced to no less than 10 years in prison if a gun is discharged. The law, however, does not make any allowance for law enforcement.

North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in October 2006 asking that Compean and Ramos not be subjected to any misapplication of the law.

"When §924(c) is applied to law enforcement officers, it is in the context of heinous crimes, such as sexual assaults, which are clearly outside the realm of official duties. The application of §924(c) in this case is overly broad, setting a dangerous precedent of application to law enforcement officers trying to act within the scope of their official duties,” the letter states.

"This is an issue that both the majority and the minority want to address and we expect a hearing to be scheduled," said Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

On the Senate side, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security subcommittee, is also looking into how Compean and Ramos were prosecuted.

"This is something Senator Feinstein has been very interested in, she has expressed interested in holding a hearing," said her spokesman, Scott Gerber. The length of the ex-agents’ sentences and "whether they’re appropriate is a significant policy question she’d be interested in looking into," he added.

Meanwhile, a House bill sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to pardon Compean and Ramos includes a provision that requires DHS to revisit engagement policies on the border — policies that even Sutton has called harsh.

"Mr. Hunter, he was worried not only for the safety of the agents but the effect this particular conviction would have on the morale and future efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol," said Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper. "These are two law enforcement officials who are empowered as law enforcement officials to enforce our nation’s laws … these two agents were given the equivalent of murder sentences arguably, arguably … the facts of these cases do not merit 11 and 12-year prison sentences."

Those who have rallied around Compean and Ramos worry that their case could set a disturbing precedent for how Border Patrol agents are prosecuted for on-the-job shootings and other violence, particularly at a time when there is so much pressure to strengthen border security as part of a broader immigration reform debate.

But Sutton, as well as officials at the Border Patrol and Justice Department, point out that the case was decided by a jury and there is more to the story than what’s being told.

"There’s just an extensive misrepresentation of the facts," Sutton said. "I’d be outraged, too, if it was just two Border Patrol agents doing their job ... they don’t tell you these guys shot 15 times at a guy running away, covered up a crime scene and filed false reports.

"If I had five minutes to tell the real facts, most people say ‘oh, that’s different’ … we can’t have federal agents shooting people and covering it up."

Paris is crying again!

Paris Hilton lost it as she was hauled off in cuffs in the back of a black and white. With her fate hanging in the balance, Paris Hilton decided to face the judge dressed in ... drab gray sweats!

Paris Hilton arrived at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, just under 30 minutes after officers handcuffed her and tossed her into the back of a Sheriff's cruiser. With more special treatment from the Sheriff's Office, Ms. Hilton was able to avoided the media frenzy at the court when Sheriffs used a private, covered entrance to escort her into the courtroom.

There is no word yet on exactly what type of enterance it was, and if more rules were broken by having an inmate enter though a employee enterance.

The problem here is that there is a medical issue and it isn't wise to keep a person in jail with her problem over an extended period of time and let the problem get worse," bleated Sheriff Lee Baca into his wads of $50 notes. "In my opinion, justice is being served by the decision to have her serve her time at home. She would still be in the county jail if it were not for the medical advice. My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice. Justice is being served by the decision to have her serve her time at home."

The frenzy began early Thursday (6/7/07) when sheriff's officials released Hilton because of an undisclosed medical condition and sent her home under house arrest. She had been in jail for three days. Hilton was fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and was expected to finish her 45-day sentence for a reckless driving probation violation at her four-bedroom, three-bath home. The decision by Sheriff Lee Baca to move Hilton chafed prosecutors and Sauer, who spelled out during sentencing that Hilton was not allowed to serve house detention.

Immigration bill grants amnesty to lawbreakers

Last June I had an unexpected exchange of viewpoints in the News Journal with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. In explaining why I had voted against Nelson in the previous election, I cited his abominable record re suppression of illegal immigration.

Nelson responded: "I oppose amnesty. The immigration bill Sen. Martinez and I voted for doesn't grant amnesty to anyone. Instead, it would allow only certain immigrants who play by all the rules to seek a path to legal status."

I noted in follow-up letter that illegals had already broken a key law by entering the U.S. illegally, so none of them could actually qualify.
Well, Sens. Nelson and Martinez are at it again.

As a member of NumbersUSA (www.numbersusa.com), I have sent more than 100 faxes -- many to Nelson and Martinez, but also to President Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeff Miller, Gov. Crist and others -- expressing concerns about the illegal-alien situation.
Hundreds of thousands of like-minded concerned citizens have done likewise, all to no avail if the present bill granting amnesty -- whatever they want to call it -- is passed.
The senators negotiating the present amnesty "compromise" would have you believe that illegal immigration can be solved by rewarding it, even though what it really means is that the American people will be subjected to a flood of accelerated immigration, which will overwhelm and forever change America.

A recent study by the bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform found that guest worker programs depress wages, burden local communities with substantial costs, and fail to reduce unauthorized migration. The American Legion likewise emphatically opposed amnesty.
There are 23 million low-skilled Americans, including 40 percent of working-age African-American men, who currently do not have jobs. Shouldn't they get first shot at the American Dream? By 2020, amnesty would increase the number of green card holders from about 25 million to 50 million, further depressing wages and opportunities for this segment of the American populace.

By 2050 immigration could result in 200 million additional workers. Construction, restaurants, hotels and hospitality services would be overwhelmingly manned by these newcomers, to the detriment of lower-skilled Americans.

Then there's the cost to taxpayers -- estimates are that 60 percent of illegals are high-school dropouts, and the Heritage Foundation found that every household that includes a high school dropout costs taxpayers $22,500 per year, i.e., they pay $10,000 a year in taxes and receive $32,500 in taxpayer-subsidized benefits.

Can you imagine the effect on already overburdened Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and education programs? In short, we will become a giant welfare state paid for by the rest of us.
We need a change in immigration policy, but not one based on closed-door negotiations between Senate leaders and the Bush White House. The status quo, as bad as it is, is far better for American workers than the Bush/Kennedy immigration compromise.

Border security and a reliable employment verification system must be our first priorities. Stronger enforcement plus stiffer penalties for illegal workers and their employers will address our illegal immigration crisis.

With a secure border and strong enforcement in place, we can then consider a tightly controlled guest worker program geared to serving America's interests.
American taxpayers need a legion of heroes to protect us from this outrage. Be one of those heroes. Call your senators -- (202) 224-3121 -- and express your opposition now, before it's too late.

Paris Crying Behind Bars

Jailbird Socialite Paris Hilton, has spent her second day behind bars at California’s Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood yesterday- is reportedly struggling to cope behind bars.
Inside sources revealed to TMZ.com: ‘Paris is scared. She has been crying on the phone, saying she’s not sleeping or eating. “Paris says her cell is freezing cold. She has three little blankets and no pillow. She’s using one of the blankets as a pillow.

And I say this is a very good thing. She has lived her life thinking she can do anything she wants without any punishment. I think the judge went easy on her giving her only 45 days, maybe the judge was blinded by her celebrity.


The question I have is: Do you think a regular person would only get 45 days in jail after being pulled over three diffrent time with a susspended license?

Updated: 6/7/07 15:03
Hilton's path to jail began when she was arrested Hilton in Hollywood on Sept. 7. She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.

On Jan. 15 she was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. Informed that her license was suspended, Hilton signed a document acknowledging she was not to drive. Then, on Feb. 27, she was pulled over a third time, which led to her brief incarceration.

Border Agents Warn Immigration Bill Will Compromise National Security

A group of former Border Patrol Agents convened on Monday to warn U.S. senators that the current immigration bill would compromise national security if signed into law.

Chairman of the National Association of Border Patrol Officers Kent Lundgren said, "First and most dangerous, is the fact that there will be no meaningful criminal or terrorist record checks of the applicants. If the amnesty passes, we will legalize them despite what past history they may have. Despite what the Administration and Congress say about record checks to ease voters' minds, they are lying about it."

Under the current bill, those who entered the country illegally would be eligible to obtain a "z visa" if certain requirements are met. The z visa is described as a legal, renewable, identification card that could be issued without requiring its holder to first return to their home country. In order to get a z visa, applicants must undergo a full background check.

The bill only gives government officials a single business day to determine if the applicant is a criminal. If nothing suspicious turns up within 24 hours, the applicant would immediately be given a probationary z visa that would be valid for up to six months after the official z visa is issued.

According to varying estimates, there are between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens currently living inside the United States. All of them would be able to apply for the z visa under the Senate bill.

At the National Press Club, Lundgren explained: "There is no way that record checks can be done on that many people in a limited time frame. And the provision that [background] checks must be completed within 24 hours would be laughable if it were not so outrageous, told obviously to deceive."

"And, it makes no mention of foreign criminal record checks, which are simply an impossibility," Lundgren added. "There won't even be an attempt made there."

The bill also allows illegal-alien gang members to sign a "renunciation of gang affiliation" that would clear the applicant of past gang affiliation and help them obtain a visa. Another provision shelters illegal aliens who have defied a court ruling to leave the country. If the illegal alien, called an "absconder" in this context, could prove leaving the United States "would result in extreme hardship" to the absconder or immediate family, the criminal alien would be permitted to apply for a z visa.

Lundgren said these provisions would benefit members of the notorious terrorist gang Mara Salvatrucha 13, commonly known as MS-13, which is largely made up of illegal aliens from El Salvador and Honduras.

Another unworkable provision of the Senate bill, according to the group, is a requirement that 6,000 new agents be installed to by 2008.

Jim Dorcy, who retired as a senior special agent with the Justice Department's Inspector General's Office after serving the Border Patrol, said the process of hiring Border Patrol Agents is "extremely complicated and exacting."

"To do it properly, it would take months or even year to bring on board and train personnel staff to do a minimally adequate job of pre-hire vetting," he said.

The Border Patrol's residential training program is 19 weeks long. Its curriculum includes immigration law, physical training, firearms instruction, driving and the Spanish language. There is only one training facility, located in New Mexico, where potential agents can receive this instruction.

To qualify for Border Patrol training, a recruit must pass a three-part entrance exam that gauges reasoning skills, a recruit's ability to learn Spanish and job-related experiences and achievements. During resident training, an agent must complete 200 hours of Spanish-language instruction and then pass periodic refresher courses.

In June 2006, there were 11,300 Border Agents on staff.

Dorcy said that there has already been a rush to bring agents on staff that has comprised their ranks. "The rush to hire is bringing about agents in place before background checks [on the agents] are completed," he said. "There have already been illegal aliens, not just aliens, but illegal aliens found in the green uniform. Other agents have been found to be married to illegal aliens, and still others have illegal family members. That is a conflict of interest, even for the agent who has the best of intentions."

Former Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Hugh Brien, a legal immigrant from Ireland, asked listeners to pay special attention to recent news reports. "I am sure you have read about the potential terrorist that were scoping out Fort Dix, New Jersey," he said "Did you notice that the report said that two of them were illegal aliens who entered the border between the United States and Mexico? They are certainly not the only ones."

On May 7, six men--the "Fort Dix Six"--were arrested for plotting an attack on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey. Three of the men were brothers, who migrated with their family illegally from Mexico to the United States in 1984. None of the family members were ever given legal status. Yet, the family owned and maintained a roofing business, called Colonial Roofing, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The business was approved by Cherry Hill's local zoning bard in December 2000.

Brien said worrying about illegal immigration was "a good reason to stay awake at night. No one knows how many [potential terrorists] there are, where they come from and where they are now. Worst of all, we don't know what they are up do and that can hurt us badly."

The National Border Patrol Council, a union for Border Patrol Agents 11,000 strong, also opposes the Senate immigration bill. T.J. Bonner, president of the NBPC, said in a May 17 statement the legislation "needlessly jeopardizes the security of this Nation."

"Rewarding criminal behavior has never induced anyone to abide by the law," Bonner said. "And there is no reason to believe that the outcome would be any different in this case."

Social Security and immigration

In fiscal 2001, President Bush used the Social Security lockbox that Al Gore cherished throughout the 2000 presidential campaign. By the end of the current fiscal year, Mr. Bush will have spent more than a trillion dollars in Social Security surpluses over the last five years. And he recently submitted a five-year budget plan (2008-12) that proposes to spend $1.2 trillion more in Social Security surpluses. Moreover, according to the latest trustees' report, the present value of Social Security's unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years is $4.8 trillion. Redeeming an additional $2 trillion in current trust fund bonds will almost certainly require dipping into general revenues, which would squeeze government operations everywhere else, including national security. Thus, the present value of Social Security's 75-year shortage is $6.8 trillion, and it's rising each year.

In a fiscally catastrophic environment like this, what's another $207 billion? Well, as former Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen once said, "A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon it adds up to real money." By several orders of magnitude, a $100 billion here, a hundred billion there . . . So, yes, $207 billion is real money.

Thus, the Bush administration should think twice about the U.S.-Mexico Social Security totalization agreement, which would have the effect of transferring an estimated $207 billion in Social Security assets by 2040 to 1.6 million Mexican workers and dependents. The majority of those cash benefits would go to Mexicans who worked illegally in the United States. According to a recent study by TREA Senior Citizens League, a Social Security advocacy group, $207 billion represents the price tag of paying Social Security benefits to (a) 827,000 aliens from Mexico who used "non-work" Social Security numbers to work illegally in the United States; (b) Mexican citizens who overstayed their visas here and worked illegally; and (c) illegal aliens from Mexico "who entered the United States illegally on or after Jan. 1, 2004, and worked for at least 18 months," provided that immigration amnesty passes and they gain work authorization.

Beyond the Social Security benefits that would be collected by Mexicans who worked here illegally, their dependents "are also eligible for benefits and could increase the cost of totalized retiree benefits by as much as 50 percent," the TREA Senior Citizens League study asserts.

If Mr. Bush goes forward with his intention to sign this agreement, either chamber of Congress has 60 days to reject it. Both bodies should exercise that duty. In the meantime, as the ill-advised immigration "reform" bill makes its way through the Senate, the appropriate amendments should be passed to prevent illegal aliens from making Social Security's precarious finances worse than they already are.

Notes

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Pro-Illegal Alien Protesters Attack Police

A day of mostly calm immigration rallies ended with a clash between police and demonstrators, and Police Chief William Bratton promised a department review to "determine if the use of force was appropriate."

Several people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt during skirmishes at MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles late Tuesday. About 10 people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries were believed to be serious. At least one person was arrested, said Officer Mike Lopez.

May Day marches in Los Angeles brought out about 25,000 people, only a fraction of the roughly 650,000 who rallied last year. Turnout nationwide was also light compared to a year ago.

Organizers said fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home. They said those who did march felt a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections.

The clash at MacArthur Park started after 6 p.m. when police tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto the street. Authorities said several people of the few thousand still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back onto the sidewalk.

"(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers," said Angela Sambrano, one of the rally's lead organizers.

The police action cut short several speeches, said Hamid Khan, who works at the SouthAsia Network. He said officers "overreacted."

Bratton said "certain elements of the crowd" started the disturbance, but the "vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately."

He promised an investigation to determine what happened and whether police used excessive force.

"If officers behaved inappropriately, we will deal with that," he said at a late news conference.

A staff member from Spanish-language TV station Telemundo confirmed to the Los Angeles Times late Tuesday that one reporter and three camera operators from the station had been injured and taken to the hospital by police.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was traveling in El Salvador at the start of a nine-day trade mission, said the incident was "a most unfortunate end to a peaceful day."

Villaraigosa said he asked Bratton, who was scheduled to join the mayor in El Salvador and Mexico, to remain in Los Angeles to oversee a review of the incident.

Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the incident marred an otherwise peaceful protest, and urged changes to police practices. She said the group was "outraged and saddened" by reports of excessive force by law enforcement.

"While we understand that a group of anarchists, not associated with the rally, instigated an altercation with police, we are disappointed that authorities would respond to their actions by herding them into a peaceful crowd and by shooting rubber bullets with little warning," Durazo said in a statement.

North Korea targets Hawaii and PM Harper

Unnamed Japanese and U.S. officials have reported that one of the missiles North Korea launched this week was aimed at a small island one mile off the coast of Hawaii. The missile launched on the 4th of July was much stronger and more sophisticated then previous missile launched by North Korea in the past. If it had not malfunctioned, it apparently would have landed on the designated target.

The missile, called the Taepodong-2, has a range of more than nine thousand miles and is capable of reaching parts of the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada.

The United States is not the only target the North Korean dictator has. He has also made repeated threats of missile strikes against Canadian interests. Kim Jong IL as gone as far as stating he has spies in Canada updating him on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s every move.

Denigration of personal responsibility

Currently in the United States we are seeing a trend of personal responsibility being passed from an individual to society as a whole. Victims are never at fault, and money can always be gain. One example is the lawsuit filed against MySpace.com for $30 million dollars for an alleged sexual assault in Travis County, Texas. For some reason beyond my comprehension MySpace is totally at fault because a 14-year-old girl was contacted by a 19-year-old man, she gave him her cell phone number, and of her own free will and accord she went on a date with him. After dinner and a movie in the back seat of his car he allegedly raped her. And because of that, MySpace owes her money. Where were her parents in all of this, were they monitoring her internet usage? Obviously not. And why did she give him her cellphone number? It sounds like she knew her parents would not approve, and she felt like she needed to hide it.
This is almost as injudicious as a fat person suing McDonalds because their double cheeseburgers made them fat. What did they think it was made of, fruits and vegetables?
I think America needs to wakeup to common sense and have parents monitor internet usage and properly educate children to the dangers of the world, instead of having them walk around hood-wicked to society.

Chemical weapons in Iraq

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) announced Wednesday the finding of over 500 munitions or weapons of mass destruction, specifically “sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles,” in Iraq.

Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, Santorum said, “Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.”

According to Santorum, “That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country.”

Reading from the document, Santorum added, “Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the Black Market. Use of these weapons by terrorist or insurgent groups would have implications for coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside of Iraq cannot be ruled out. The most likely munitions remaining are sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles. And I underscore filled.”

Santorum said the “purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions.”
While acknowledging that the agents “degrade over time,” the document said that the chemicals “remain hazardous and lethal.”

The media has reported that “insurgents and Iraqi groups” want to “acquire and use chemical weapons,” Santorum noted.

The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction is in fact false,” Santorum said. “We have found over 500 weapons of mass destruction and in fact have found that there are additional chemical weapons still in the country. Hopefully a few of these munitions will find its into the front yard of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Maybe then Canada will get off it's ass and help.

US taxpayer money helping Mexican army smuggle drugs and humans

The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for the Mexican military and police to help stop illegal alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists, and protect America's southern border, including $50 million due this year. The money that was quietly and unknowingly to the American public authorized through State and Defense departments to train and equip the Mexican military and police who has been repeatedly caught crossing into American territory to unsuccessfully help drug smugglers go undetected. The US taxpayer money helps funds helicopters, four-wheel-drive vehicles, trucks, all-terrain cycles, communications and detection equipment, binoculars, training Mexican in intelligence gathering and counterterrorism, computers and other equipment for the Mexican military and police.

This funding program should cease immediately, and the Mexican government needs to be placed on notice that any further incursions by its military or police will not be tolerated after reoccurring incidents on the border in which the Mexican military confronted and fired upon U.S. law-enforcement officers. If they have this kind of money to give away, there are better ways to spend it like school and more detention space. Mexico cannot control its own military, and it makes no sense to give them better weapons and equipment they can use to attack and threaten our own law-enforcement officers.

The 2006 budget request calls for the delivery of a telephone intercept system, which would give Mexico the ability to eavesdrop on suspected narcoterrorists, smugglers, both American and Mexican citizens, as well as high ranking officials of the American government all over the country. According to the State Department, the funds help the Mexican government respond to domestic Mexican threats, and equipping Mexican first-responders. Most of the 2006 funding request for about $28.1 million, comes from the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for technical assistance, equipment and arms transfers, as well as programs to encourage the cultivation of legal crops and assistance for drug demand-reduction programs.

An additional $18.4 million is from the Defense Department's International Military Education and Training program, which provides counternarcotics assistance and training to foreign military personnel and police. The budget also includes $2.5 million for grants and loans to help Mexico purchase U.S.-produced weapons, defense equipment and military training; $1.1 million is for additional training for the Mexican secret police and an unknown number of civilians; and $450,000 to train military officers as part of the Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program.

Cheney hunting story over reported?

Since Sunday (2-12-06) when the hunting accident involving Vice President Dick Cheney shooting lawyer Harry Whittington was reported, it seems that is the only big news happening in the United States for the past three days. Every show from cable news to late night talk shows are constantly making jokes, and endlessly talking about it. And why? On average about 80 fatalities are caused each year by hunting accidents, and never go reported, especially for three days straight.

But on a whole the over reporting of the Dick Cheney story is not that big of a thing. So many other stories in the United States that are not favorable to the current administration are going under reported. Like the story of British abuse, two soldiers were arrested today in Britain, but that doesn’t seem to be important at all. For months the public has known from Iranian governmental statements that they have been working towards nuclear weapons, and what has the UN done? Nothing. And the media prosecution of Neil Entwistle has also has been dropped by the media. Unfortunately on of the downsides is the under reporting of the CIA and NSA leaks and prosecutions. I bet numerous people would feel those are more interesting and important stories then a hunting accident in Corpus Christi Texas on private property. So if the media wants to constantly bloviate about a story that will go nowhere, I say let them, then we can watch as their ratings plummet, as people realize there is better things to do with their time.

Master Mason Spc. Wilder found dead after ritual

Spc. Donald Anthony Wilder, radio communication security controller repairman with the 512th Maintenance Company, become active with the Prince Hall Masons in the fall of 2005 and was found dead in a barracks shower. His plan was to get so drunk for the Jan. 7 2006 ceremony that he wouldn't feel the pain of the paddling he expected, according to a friend, Spc. Tony de'Ercole. His mother Diane Wilder, said her son told her that if he got so drunk that he passed out, his fellow Masons would take his blows for the fallen Brother.

The Prince Hall Masons are a predominantly black secretive brotherhood. Similar to other branches of Masons, the group offers a system of morality and performs community service. Several U.S. troops in Europe and around the world belong to the Prince Hall Masons. On Jan. 8, just hours after the evening ceremony that took place inside Mannheim American High School at Benjamin Franklin Village, Wilder was found dead in a friend's shower in the barracks at Spinelli Barracks in Mannheim, medical professionals, military police and the German police were called to the scene. Shortly after noon, Spc. Donald Anthony Wilder, a 21-year-old veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, was pronounced dead.

An autopsy performed last month at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center was inconclusive, pending further studies, which are due back next week (2/14/06 - 2/18/06). Marie Shaw a hospital spokeswoman, said preliminary findings show Wilder experienced a sudden, unexpected death. Soldiers are not prohibited from joining such groups as the Masons.

The Prince Hall Grand Lodge that has jurisdiction of the lodge with which Wilder was active issued an edict against hazing just 10 days after Wilder died. The lodge's Grand Master said his group is investigating what happened at the initiation ceremony, stated paddling is forbidden, a that what happened on Jan. 7 2006 was an isolated incident that should not reflective the Prince Hall Masons as a whole.

"Be it hereby known and acknowledged that there will be no hazing or un-Masonic conduct of any sort tolerated during degree work within the Jurisdiction of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington and Jurisdiction, the Jan. 18 2006 letter stated. Any such behavior that is determined to be inappropriate will be dealt with swiftly and unequivocally per our code on un-Masonic conduct."

The letter was signed by Wendell O. Hutchings, the lodge's grand master.

Freemasonry under attack in Scottland

The Scottish Parliament Wednesday rejected a petition calling for an inquiry into how many Freemasons there are in the police and the judiciary. Sidney Gallagher brought forward the petition to the Public Petitions Committee was reported to have been thrown out of the Edinburgh-based parliament after shouting at its MPs.

Convener Michael McMahon said there had been a number of petitions on the topic in the past and had referred them on to the Justice Committee, which then carried out a full inquiry. "I don't think this petition adds anything to that inquiry. I don't think there's any value in taking it forward," McMahon was quoted waying by PA News. The committee simply agreed to note the latest petition, Gallagher, described as a 66-year old joiner from Glasgow, shouted that he wanted justice before being led out by security staff.

Police were said to have later questioned the petitioner, who later revealed he had been sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder, claiming that two officers, who gave evidence against him, were Freemasons. An inquiry by the Home Affairs Committee of the British Parliament in 1998 concluded that there were a "large number of freemasons within the criminal Justice system," but said that the numbers in themselves give "no general cause for concern." It reported that it is "not possible on the evidence we received to say that there has never been any abuse of masonic contacts" despite the many allegations.

"There is a widespread public perception that freemasonry can have an unhealthy influence on the criminal justice system," the committee said. It said that it "certainly believe that one of the main reasons for freemasonry's poor public image is a perception that it is a secret society" while recommending that members themselves of the secret brotherhood address such a perception. A government survey at the time found that there were at least at least 247 judges in the UK who admitted they were masons and over 1,000 magistrates.

Iranian contradiction concerning the Holocaust

Today I was very surprised to hear that Iran's best-selling daily paper Hamshahri has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust. The reason for my surprise was not because the Holocaust is a forbidden taboo that can never be talked or joked about, it is because the newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently called the Holocaust a "myth." "Iran's Foreign Ministry has decided to hold a conference on the Holocaust to assess its scale by scientific means and discuss its consequences," a ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told a news conference on Sunday.

It seems to me that Iran is facing a dilemma right now because they want to attack Israel and Jews in retribution for cartoons depicting Muhammad, but the cartoon contest should not be very offensive since according to their President the Holocaust is a "myth" that was created by Western powers to justify the creation of Israel in the heart of the Islamic world. Just as with their nuclear program, I think Iran needs to get their story straight before making statements.

Cartoon Contest Source
Holocaust myth source
Why protests where delayed

What would Muhammad do? WMD

Last year the Danish writer Kaare Bluitgen was putting the last touches on a book about the prophet Muhammad aimed at children. In spite of the prohibition on portraying the prophet in Islam, Bluitgen decided that he would like his book to be illustrated. In the wake of the murder on Theo van Gogh, and an attack on a professor in history at the University of Copenhagen, Bluitgen felt that it was wisest to keep the illustrators anonymous because of fear of reprisals from crazy fundamentalists.

The Danish newspaper "Jyllandsposten" picked up the story about Bluitgens choice to keep the names of the illustrators secret, and to demonstrate that Denmark has freedom of speech, the newspaper commissions cartoonists to make a series of satirical drawings of the prophet Muhammad. 12 of the numerous cartoons appeared in print September 30 2005. They were not immediately met with outrage from Muslims in Denmark, the outrage by the muslim population only started after several radical clerics from Europe traveled around the Middle East distributing the cartoons, and giving fiery speeches.

This is crazy how muslims are protesting these cartoons when Jews are shown in islamic newspaper cartoons over and over with hook noses, jew gold around their necks with the star of David, and greedily stashing money. And what about all the caricatures depicting Christ and god, you do not see Christians taking to the streets and shooting rifles into the air like they have smoked to much dope in thier parlors. I think muslims need to take a serious look at themselves, and realize what they are turning into.

Rude Letter from Rep. Tom Prezelski

(Direct Quote) Forwarded from Immigration fighter

"Proposition 200 failed in the district I represent. Given that you don't live here, I find it rather presumptuous that you think you can speak for my constituents. Your comments indicate that you have absolutely no knowledge of the ELL problem in Arizona (the issue goes back for decades) or anything about the people who I am trying to represent. This issue has little or nothing to do with illegal immigration and the elected officials who say so generally know better and are posturing. The opinion of NumbersUSA, whoever they are, is irrelevant to me, since I am here to speak for the best interests of the people of Tucson.

Your use of the term "anchor baby" shows a rather unfortunate contempt for your fellow human beings. I find it equally unfortunate that someone with a vaguely Spanish sounding name like yourself would throw in with a bunch of bigots who would like to deport most of my friends, family, and neighbors. Sorry, fella, but neither one of us fits into their vision of America and don't think that you aren't next. You should be glad that someone is speaking out against this movement."

Thomas Edward Prezelski, JR. - Date of Birth: 01/12/1970
State Representative, District 29
1700 W. WashingtonRoom 330
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Office Phone : (602) 926-3424
Office Fax : (602) 417-3129
tprezelski@azleg.gov


----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a very rude guy, but what do you expect from a felon and bad driver who was only able to be elected by running unopposed.

Rep. Tom Prezelski under investigation media story

*** Detailed Case Infomation ***

**** Case infomation source ****

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Fighting Immigration

To J.D. Hayworth, conservative Republican congressman from Scottsdale, Americans are acting like "a bunch of defeatist wimps," unwilling to stand up for the country's culture, its borders, its security and its own laws.

But in Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror, a new book authored by Hayworth and his chief of staff, Joe Eule, the 47-year-old lawmaker declares that he won't be among those "cowed into inaction" by "namby-pamby" editorial writers or even presidential adviser Karl Rove.

In fewer than 200 pages, Hayworth levels a full-scale attack on illegal immigration that he seems confident will draw wide attention.

Predicting that he will be pilloried by "the media elite" for what he has written, Hayworth takes on President Bush's plan to establish a limited guest-worker program, as well as the left, the right, the country of Mexico and political correctness.

Hayworth's own prescription for a more-secure United States calls for such things as putting active-duty troops on the border to help stop illegal crossings and, "as a last resort," building a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

"Sympathizers of illegal immigration," Hayworth says, may argue that it is unfeasible to seal the border. But the $4 billion to $8 billion cost of such a security fence would be "a bargain when considering what illegal immigration is costing the country" in health care and education, higher crime, and perhaps even the eventual balkanization of parts of the country, he writes.

Hayworth challenges Bush

The underlying message in the book from conservative publisher Regnery ($27.95; publication date Jan. 16) is that Americans have at least one brave, bold voice from what he calls the gateway of an illegal invasion that is not afraid to tell it like it is.

"I consider this book a wake-up call," Hayworth said in an interview Wednesday.

Hayworth writes that Bush has been giving the United States the verbal equivalent of a sedative whenever he talks about illegal immigration.

"President George Bush's leadership in the War on Terror has been bold and inspiring. But when it comes to illegal immigration, he has been uncharacteristically and disturbingly vague and indecisive," Hayworth writes.

"Instead of the moral clarity we've come to expect, we get such politically correct buzz phrases as, 'If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.' That's not policy - it's a verbal tranquilizer meant to soothe the nerves of Americans who have had it with rampant lawbreaking on our border."

Hayworth also recalls a remark from Rove after the congressman suggested to Bush about a year ago during a GOP retreat in West Virginia that it would be a mistake to hand Congress an agreement with Mexico coordinating the two countries' Social Security systems.

"The president thanked me for being candid and said he would consider my views. But Rove became somewhat exasperated and spluttered, 'You just don't want to help Brown people, do you?' "

"Was this the president's right-hand man, or had I stumbled into the Twilight Zone?" Hayworth writes. "One thing is certain: we don't need Republicans playing the race card when there are so many liberals who are so good at it."

And therein lies a main theme of Hayworth's book: He says that much of what this nation has done with regard to border security and illegal immigration, or has failed to do, is driven by "rampant political correctness and multicultural sensibilities."

And although Sen. John McCain, a fellow Arizona Republican, and Arizona GOP Reps. Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake are expected to be among those pushing hard for an expanded guest-worker plan for foreign workers when Congress reconvenes, Hayworth will be among those opposed to it, Hayworth writes.

Such a program, among other things, would give millions of undocumented workers already in the country the ability to apply for temporary guest-worker status and eventually citizenship after paying fines.

Rewarding illegal behavior

Hayworth acknowledges that he once did support the idea of a temporary-worker program. But he says he has since determined it would do nothing but reward illegal behavior and encourage more illegal immigration.

The former sportscaster likens such a program to someone getting caught sneaking into the Super Bowl, only to be allowed to stay and watch the game if he pays a small fine.

He also scoffs at those who warn of the economic repercussions of plugging this source of willing, low-wage labor, and includes some of his fellow Arizona Republicans in Congress as among what he calls these "lettuce liberals."

"At a meeting in the Capitol with several members of the Arizona congressional delegation and Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, one of my guts-up conservative colleagues made the case for a guest-worker program. Without it, he asked, 'What's going to happen to the price of lettuce?' " Hayworth writes.

But Hayworth says national security should not be lost at a cost of appeasing businesses that want cheap labor.

"Al Qaeda is looking to ship a nuke across our southern border and we're supposed to wring our hands over the price of lettuce? Not this congressman," he writes.

A White House official said Wednesday that Rove recalls the conversation recounted by Hayworth but that the quote as published is inaccurate. Rove was simply trying to encourage Hayworth to be sensitive to all citizens, the official said.

On Wednesday, Hayworth stood by the quote. He also said that he does not know if book sales ultimately will turn a profit but said he hopes so. He said that he already has received word that House ethics rules permit him to keep the money.

Border Security

Finally the governor the Arizona has sent National Guard troops to secure the southern border. I think this action will help decrease the amount of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Some “open-border� supports are going to claim that more troops on the border will increase the amount of death. But that is entirely wrong. With more troops on the border, illegal immigrants will be less likely to cross in the first place out of fear of being detained and returned. So the only people who have to be worried are drug and human smugglers, honest people do not depend on illegal activity.

This should have started decades ago, and if it was, more infrastructures would be available. I think every recruit in every branch of service should be sent to the southern border for basic training. The presence of troops on the border will be a big deterrence. Every skill from tracking, moving, and surveillance, which is a vital skill for survival on a battlefield, can be tested and honed before a single life is at peril.

Saddam's Terror Training Camps

In the latest issue of The Weekly Standard there is an interesting article by Stephen F. Hayes titled "Saddam's Terror Training Camps". In it the author reports the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein... "Trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq."

Many of the terrorists training in Iraqi camps were drawn and supported by groups in northern Africa with very close links to al Qaeda. Thousands were trained in Iraq and have returned and are responsible for the attacks, which have taken place since the invasion.

How does Hayes the author justify these statements? He says, "The photographs and documents on Iraqi training camps come from a collection of some 2 million exploitable items captured in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. They include handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, floppy discs and computer hard drives." The documentation is there for any other legitimate source to examine.

There are other reports too, which should have waved flags at traditional publications and launched them on an extensive investigation to disprove the facts being presented.

1. For example, those documents show that Abdul Rahman Yasin, the only member of the al Qaeda cell that detonated the bomb in the 1993 World Trade Center attack to remain at large, fled to Iraq, where he was given a house and a monthly salary.

2. An al Qaeda member now in United States custody has confessed that in the 1990s bin Laden made an agreement with Saddam Hussein to cease all terrorist attacks inside Iraq.

3. Another report has a former colonel in Saddam's Fedayeen saying bin Laden's fighters were in Iraq in 1997 and that he observed them in a training camp in Salman Pak, southeast of Baghdad.

Reports upon reports are available and could be reviewed by legitimate press services. Little effort has been made by these media sources to make that information a central factor of the debate on why the war is being fought in Iraq. Instead, from CNN News to the Democrat Bloggers and from party line newspapers to the New York Times, all the public hears are chants that "Bush Lied!"

Many of the facts mentioned in this article and in the Weekly Standard are contained in a book by Richard Minter titled "Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror", which was on the bestseller lists in 2003. Mr. Minter is a senior fellow at the Center for the New Europe and his writings can also be found online at Tech Central Station.com.

These facts, according to the Weekly Standard article have come to light after translation of only 50,000 documents. There has been so much intelligence uncovered that at the current rate of translation two more generations of language experts will be required to bring all the details to light. But, even if that happens there will be those unpatriotic scum in the government and the media who claim there was no involvement with al Qaeda and there was no terrorist activity in Iraq before the Americans launched their attack.

Attention NumbersUSA.COM activists

NumbersUSA : January 4 , 2006 -- by Roy Beck, President (unedited)


THE BATTLE IN THE SENATE BEGINS NOW

Some of you started sending us emails on Christmas Day wanting to know why -- after our big victories in the U.S. House -- we weren't already working on the next step of the battle. And why we weren't giving you your next set of marching orders. (We honor your enthusiasm but took some vacation time anyway ... along with most congressional staffers!)

Now, Hill staffers are back. And so are we.

NumbersUSA Comment:This report is for NumbersUSA members only. Please do not pass this email on to other people or post it on a website.

The action moved today to a hostile, foreign country -- the U.S. Senate, where the majority works harder for corporations and foreign workers than for American workers and their families.

This email contains a number of things that we need you to do. Please read carefully and take action now.

To skip all my verbiage and cut to the chase, just go to the ACTIONS IN BRIEF section in the right column and click the links for action.

1. BACKGROUND

Our battle began in the U.S. House last month. Just before Christmas, an overwhelming bi-partisan majority attached strong amendment after strong amendment to H.R. 4437 before passing this tough immigration enforcement bill AND legal immigration reduction bill.

Click here to read all about what the bill does and how it was passed.

Now, we move from our home base over to the Senate.

Senate leaders hope to pass their own immigration bill before March.

The two bills will then go into a joint Conference Committee of negotiators who will create a compromise bill that goes back to both chambers of Congress for a final vote.

We expect a poor to terrible bill to come out of the Senate. But we will be fighting to get as good of a bill as possible to improve chances of creating a compromise bill close to what the House passed.

2. SEN. SPECTER'S PLAN ... Amnesty and Guestworkers

Our Senate sources told us today that Senate Judiciary Chairman Specter (R-PA) has a plan to force backers of tough immigration enforcement to accept amnesty and guestworker programs as the only way that Specter will allow a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Sen. Specter is expected to begin executing his plan next week with the hope of having it all in place when he hopes his committee will pass the amnesty/guestworker bill in early February.

Based on his sneak efforts in November, also anticipate that Sen. Specter will slip into the bill major increases in permanent green cards. (In November, he added 350,000 permanent worker slots EACH YEAR to the Budget Reconciliation bill. Fortunately, your activism and House leaders forced every single one of those slots out of the bill before final passage.)

3. PHONE SEN. SPECTER ... Tell him and his staff that they are out of step with the American people

Call any or all of these offices:

202-224-4254 Washington, DC

610-434-1444 Allentown, PA

215-597-7200 Philadelphia, PA

NumbersUSA Comment:Here are important phone numbers for you to copy down!

412-644-3400 Pittsburgh, PA

717-782-3951 Harrisburg, PA

570-346-2006 Scranton, PA

570-826-6265 Wilkes-Barre, PA

814-453-3010 Erie, PA 16501

For some reason, Sen. Specter and his staff have come to believe that no matter how outrageous their efforts for creating open borders and flooding American communities with foreign workers that the public won't really pay that much attention to them.

Your task this week -- all week -- is to let all of Sen. Specter's staffs know that you know what he is up to -- and that he has become the most powerful force for open borders in the country.

Although Sen. Specter has never been helpful to us on immigration issues, his decision to become the chief proponent for the most radical immigration measures in American history is puzzling to many.

A number of our sources in the Senate tell us that they don't think Sen. Specter is even paying that much attention to the immigration issues and is primarily letting one of his staffers lead the way.

That staffer is Joe Jacquot (pronounced JAY-ko).

Mr. Jacquot is widely known on the Hill for his close relationship with the Microsoft lobbying operation.

You may want to mention Mr. Jacquot and question Microsoft's role when you make your phone calls.

I would hope that your primary message on your calls would be something like: Stop all efforts to include legalization or mass guestworker programs in your immigration bill. Model yourself after the House and create an ENFORCEMENT-ONLY bill. Don't consider any other aspects until you have proven that the federal government can actually enforce the law. WE DON'T NEED MORE FOREIGN WORKERS.

4. TAKE OUR POLITICAL SURVEY ... so you can see more specialized faxes

Many of our fax opportunities are seen only by people who have identified themselves as (a) Democrats or (b) Republicans or (c) Swing Voters.

If you have not taken our political survey, you won't see any of these faxes on your Action Buffet corkboard.

Please take this completely private survey at:

www.numbersusa.com/survey?action=shortlist&cat=political

If you already have taken the survey, open it up again to make sure it properly reflects your affiliations.

5. HAMMER YOUR SENATORS WITH FAXES ... press them to support Enforcement-Only bill

After you have taken the political survey, you should see Action Notes on your corkboard for you to send customized faxes to your two Senators.

Start preparing their staffs to understand that the Senators' votes on this immigration bill will be widely followed and scrutinized -- especially votes by Senators who are running for re-election later this year.

Please modify and send all faxes that are listed on your Action Buffet at:

www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet

We will have many more messages for you to send during this battle. But these are important opening faxes to gain the attention of staff.

6. THANKS & NO THANKS ... Send fax to your own Representative based on his/her immigration votes in House last month

Many of you have been clamoring for three weeks for these faxes.

Well, here they are.

On your Action Buffet is a fax tailored to your Representative based on his/her votes on the key amendments and H.R. 4437.

Don't miss giving House Members quick feedback on their behavior.

Please modify and send the fax from:

www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet

7. HEAR ME ON RADIO SUNDAY NIGHT ... the Terry Anderson show at midnight EST

NumbersUSA Comment:Listen to Roy on the Terry Anderson radio show via the web Sunday night.

Terry is the incredibly motivating mechanic of South Central Los Angeles who burns up the airwaves every Sunday night.

You can listen on the internet at:

www.theterryandersonshow.com

Terry's producer says people are bombarding the show after the House victories wanting to know what they should do next. We'll talk about that at midnight Eastern time.

THANKS FOR STARTING THIS BATTLE IN THE SENATE; THERE'LL BE MANY MORE OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS,

-- ROY

College Students

It is very amazing to see what some students have to do to pay for tuition.


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Drugs linked with illegal immigration?

It's dangerous enough to enter the United States illegally through the Arizona desert. Temperatures can top 100 degrees Migrants often don't carry enough water to remain hydrated for the days-long hike. And unscrupulous smugglers have been known to abandon their charges if they've already paid the crossing fee.

Now, imagine doing it high on amphetamines.

Border Patrol agents say that's happening more and more, as hapless border crossers find themselves entangled with drug smugglers looking for a way to get their product into the country. In exchange for carrying drugs across the border, the smugglers called "narcotraficantes" or "polleros" cover some of what the immigrants pay to their guides. The crossers then take a pill typically speed so they'll have enough energy to make it to the drop site.

"The drugs are just as fatal for the immigrants as their trek through the desert," said Hector Salazar of Grupo Beta, a rescue group created by the Mexican government to help stranded migrants near the U.S. border. "The polleros need them awake to make the crossing."

Most illegal drugs enter the United States at the southern border, where millions of people cross through 25 ports of entry each day, said Anthony Placido, the Drug Enforcement Administration's acting assistant administrator for intelligence.

Though the vastness of the region and the huge volume of border traffic complicate the enforcement picture, official corruption in Mexico remains the largest impediment to slowing drug traffic from that country, he said.

"In actuality, law enforcement in Mexico is all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution," Placido told a House committee earlier this year. "This is particularly true at the municipal and state levels of government."

Even the Mexican prison system contributes to the problem. Major drug lords have been incarcerated, but they are able to continue running their businesses from their cells, Placido said.

At the northern border, the problem is less acute. Better coordination between the Border Patrol and Canadian authorities helps, said Joseph Giuliano, deputy chief patrol agent for the Blaine, Wash., sector.

Also, the forbidding landscape makes it harder for smugglers to come across. According to the DEA, drugs are ferried in both directions via all modes of transport: cars, backpacks, all-terrain vehicles, even snowmobiles.

But the importation of drugs from Canada is a growing threat, mostly because of links between Asian organized crime and groups in Canada, Placido said. While drugs such as heroin were previously sent from Southeast Asia directly to New York, the DEA now believes more is being smuggled through such cities as Toronto and Montreal.

Border Enforcement

Border Patrol agents have an unofficial adage about the undocumented immigrants they see crossing illegally into the United States. For each one they catch, they say, three more make it through unscathed.

The agents aren't to blame, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. With so many migrants desperate for better lives, the tide of humanity simply overwhelms the agents.

"Blame our system," Bonner said. "Blame our system that allows people to cross the border and get jobs here."

Once undocumented immigrants are in the country, the story changes. Since the vast majority of the Border Patrol's resources are directly along the United States' international borders, the question arises: Who's enforcing immigration law in the nation's interior?

The answer, in many ways, is no one.

Organizational changes that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks fractured the federal government's immigration responsibilities among several different agencies. Additionally, the diversity, geographic distribution and sheer number of illegal immigrants already here makes any effort at simply rounding them up next to impossible.

Just a few thousand officers work for the agency charged with deporting criminal aliens, compared to estimates of 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. And those immigrants have support networks made up of friends, family and advocacy groups that help them find work and avoid capture.

Faced with the often negative consequences of massive illegal immigration -- unlicensed drivers on the road, employers violating minimum wage requirements, uninsured patients using emergency rooms -- some local law enforcement agencies are taking up the mantle of enforcing immigration law themselves.

Until recently, that step was all but unheard of. But many officials who've taken up enforcement offer the same explanation why: The federal government isn't doing enough, and someone's got to pick up the slack.

Focus on criminals

Immigration enforcement in the nation's interior is the responsibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- one of three agencies created from the ashes of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was abolished in 2003.

While the INS was involved in finding illegal immigrants of all stripes, ICE's focus is on criminal aliens. The agency's programs include deporting immigrant sex offenders, finding undocumented employees at sensitive workplaces, and working against human smuggling, money laundering, document fraud and other international crimes. ICE also includes some functions tangential to immigration, such as the Federal Protective Service, which handles security at government buildings.

ICE is in the midst of an ambitious effort dubbed Endgame, which has as its goal the deportation of all "removable aliens" in the United States by 2012.

A removable alien is, theoretically, anyone who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visa. But in practice, ICE's Detention and Removal Office focuses mostly on those who have committed crimes or been ordered deported by an immigration judge.

ICE's various enforcement efforts -- with names like Operation Predator, ICE Storm and No Safe Haven -- have been successful at targeting criminal aliens. Thousands of sex offenders, weapons smugglers and human traffickers have been arrested and deported in the two years since ICE was formed. Additionally, marriage scams to help immigrants obtain illicit green cards, and DMV workers offering licenses in exchange for bribes, also have been exposed.

But deporting every illegal immigrant in the country is next to impossible, as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October. "It would take billions and billions and billions of dollars to do it," he said.

The current removal efforts are minuscule compared with the total number of illegals here. ICE removed roughly 200,000 immigrants in fiscal 2003, and the same number in 2004. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the total number of undocumented immigrants in the United States at close to 11 million.

At least one study found the total might be so high partly because of relatively strict enforcement along the nation's borders. Princeton professor Douglas Massey says that when it's harder to cross the border into the United States, illegal immigrants who make it across are more likely to remain here longer, rather than risking multiple trips back and forth.

"Not only have U.S. policies failed to deter Mexicans from migrating to the United States, they have promoted a more rapid growth of the nation's undocumented population," Massey wrote in a study for the libertarian Cato Institute earlier this year.

For local police and sheriff's departments in border states, the situation presents a quandary. Many law enforcement agencies have standing policies that bar officers from inquiring about anyone's immigration status during the course of their regular duties.

The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, has maintained such a policy since 1979. Then-Chief Daryl Gates believed undocumented immigrants wouldn't report crimes if they feared police could have them deported after doing so.

Now, however, the population of illegal immigrants has exploded, and some local agencies, believing the federal government has fallen down on the job of enforcing immigration law, are looking for ways to do it themselves.

Getting it done locally

San Bernardino County is one of three counties in California where officials are getting ICE training in how to check for deportable illegal immigrants in local jails. The federal agency performs jail checks on a regular basis, but not frequently enough to catch everyone, a spokeswoman said.

"The fact is, those facilities have significant turnover," said ICE's Virginia Kice. "Because of that, it's possible we are not identifying every deportable criminal alien going through those jails."

Los Angeles County has been participating in the program for several months, under ICE's supervision, and Riverside County plans to follow suit. San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod believes the program will save his jails close to $1 million each month.

Although illegal immigrants won't be deported immediately after they're identified, having an accurate accounting of how many undocumented aliens the counties have jailed will make it easier to get more money from the federal government, said Carolyn Bondoc, a financial manager for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Federal reimbursements are available for local agencies that hold illegal immigrants in jails. Pending legislation would allocate $950 million for the program next year, though nationwide, such costs are estimated at $2 billion annually.

"There are more and more agencies that are applying for (federal) money," Bondoc said. "We're not getting full reimbursement -- not even half."

In Florida and Alabama, state police have reached agreements with ICE that go one step further. A handful of officers in both states have gone through training with ICE and become certified to enforce federal immigration laws, meaning they can arrest undocumented immigrants simply for being here illegally.

Officials said those officers aren't conducting raids on agricultural fields or labor camps, trying to root out anyone and everyone here illegally. They're mostly taking illegal immigrants encountered during the course of criminal investigations into custody themselves, instead of calling ICE and waiting for federal agents to respond, said E.J. Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Calling the program a success in his state, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican, wants to expand it throughout the country, because ICE's limited enforcement personnel can't possibly patrol all of the United States.

"There is no way those 2,000 officers can ever adequately patrol our streets for immigration violators and do a good job of handling these problems," Sessions said on the Senate floor this summer. "But we have 750,000 state and local law enforcement officers who are on our streets and in our communities every single day."

Overwhelming numbers

Even if they don't choose to enforce immigration law, local police and sheriff's departments are still dealing with the effects of weak borders.

Some illegal immigrants commit new crimes after entering the United States -- like trespassing on border ranches, stealing food or turning to prostitution to survive. Some commit more serious crimes, like sexual assault or murder. Others make easy targets for thieves and scam artists, since new immigrants often are afraid to contact authorities out of fear of deportation.

Rep. John Culberson, a Texas Republican, wants the Department of Homeland Security to cover the cost of hiring additional deputies for sheriff's departments in border towns. In his mind, local law enforcement agencies need more resources to deal with crimes caused by illegal immigrants and drug traffickers.

The problem is acute in the Texas border town of Laredo, Culberson said, where drug cartels with superior firepower terrorize residents in the United States and Mexico.

"The sheriff and the local authorities are outgunned and overmatched," the congressman said on the House floor.

Culberson also has legislation pending that would allow the governor of any border state to create an armed citizens' militia empowered to prevent illegal border crossings.

In California, Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, isn't waiting for that proposal to get off the ground. He's launched a signature drive for a ballot initiative that would create the California Border Police, a statewide law enforcement agency with immigration violators as its only focus.

"Quite simply, it's going to do what the federal government's not doing, and that is comprehensively enforce immigration laws in the state of California," Haynes said.

Haynes envisions a police force of up to 3,000 officers who work in the interior of the state, as well as at the border and other ports of entry.

The Border Police would cost millions to start up and operate. But Haynes said California would recoup its money, and then some, by no longer paying for services used by illegal immigrants, such as free public education or food stamps.

"We would basically have nine dollars in social welfare savings for every one dollar in costs of enforcement," estimated Haynes, who hopes to have the initiative on the ballot in 2006.

Other agencies across the country have tried more creative moves. A county in southern Idaho unsuccessfully attempted to sue several companies for hiring illegal immigrants earlier this year.

Regular citizens are itching to get involved, too. ICE receives thousands of calls each month to its hotline, (866) 347-2423, where callers can report illegal immigrants, human smugglers, employers hiring undocumented workers and other immigration law violations.

Hundreds of regular people have already gotten involved through the much-hyped Minuteman patrols, a civilian project that stationed volunteers along various sections of the nation's borders. Their intent is to assist the Border Patrol in finding those who enter the country illegally.

Even if the Minuteman effort accomplished little other than increased media attention and a temporary slowdown in border crossings near Arizona, the group's leaders say the movement showed growing frustration over what they see as the government's failed policies.

"This is a cavalier attitude our lawmakers have taken that has jeopardized our security and put our country at risk," said Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project. "America is not interested in rhetoric or empty promises. Americans are interested in results, and we will not stop until those results are realized."

Majority of Americans want automatic citizenship for illegal aliens revoked

It's been a cornerstone of American law since shortly after the Civil War: Children born in the United States become citizens, even if their parents are here illegally. Now some conservatives are taking aim at that birthright. They call the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants "anchor babies" because pregnat illegal aliens purposly , and a growing group of House Republicans wants to change the policy. They hope to add a provision to the immigration bill that the House of Representatives will consider next week that would deny citizenship to those children.

"They see people are coming here simply for the purpose of having a child here and then, because they're the anchor, they can have all the family come in on that child's ticket. ... There are thousands upon thousands of people who are doing it," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading opponent of illegal immigration. He cited "surprising" momentum behind the plan. A House bill to make the policy change has 77 co-sponsors.

Because of widespread opposition in the House and even more in the Senate, the measure is unlikely to become law, and would face a constitutional challenge in court if it did. But it promises to make the debate over illegal immigration even more divisive and could reverberate in next year's midterm elections.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who serves on the House immigration subcommittee, said it would take a constitutional amendment to deny birthright citizenship. "You can only assume they are offering this for political reasons and not a legal reason," she said.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, whose grandparents emigrated from Mexico, said: "To change the way we establish citizenship is such an extreme measure, and it makes you really question what is motivating people to come up with those ideas."

According to the Constitution's 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to give former slaves U.S. citizenship, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Tancredo said citizens of other countries are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and he added that drafters of the 14th Amendment did not intend it to apply to children of illegal immigrants.
But in a case in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that a baby born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents was legally a U.S. citizen, even though federal law at the time denied citizenship to people from China. The court said birth in the United States constituted "a sufficient and complete right to citizenship."

Many conservatives have been pressing for stronger actions against illegal immigrants, such as building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. A national poll last month by the nonpartisan Rasmussen Reports found that 49 percent favored denying citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, with 41 percent opposing such a proposal.

Immigration office ignores fake marriages

Documents show that the Houston office of the federal agency charged with interior immigration enforcement has stopped investigating individual cases of "sham" marriages, which terrorists have used in the past to stay legally in the U.S.

"Due to our current goals, priorities and lack of resources, we will not be participating in conducting one-on-one marriage fraud investigations," Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Gus Meza wrote in an October 2004 e-mail obtained by The Washington Times, citing the direction of supervisory agents in Houston.

In another e-mail, an official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the bureau that grants visas, says ICE agents regularly decline to investigate 70 percent of fraud cases, including sham marriages, sent over by the fraud unit at USCIS.

Both federal agents and independent analysts say "sham marriages" are a common tool used by terrorists to remain in the United States, making them a national security issue.

A recent report for the Center for Immigration Studies by Janice L. Kephart, who was one of the staff members on the September 11 commission, found that of 20 terrorists she studied, 18 married U.S. citizens, 10 of whom entered "sham marriages."

Regardless of whether a person entered illegally or on a legal temporary basis, "marrying an American provides an entree toward a permanent legal status and eventual naturalization," she says in the report.

Gene Lowery, the assistant special agent in charge of marriage fraud at the Houston ICE office, didn't return a call for comment.

Nick Smith, a spokesman at ICE headquarters, said the agency's policy nationwide is to review every case but to investigate only when there is evidence of an important target or a large-scale criminal organization like a marriage-fraud ring.

"There is a clear understanding throughout ICE that all cases are vetted," he said. "When there is not an extraordinary circumstance such as a criminal record or a national security threat, we focus our resources on criminal organizations engaged in marriage fraud."

He disputed the 70 percent figure and said ICE actually accepts more than half of USCIS' referrals for investigation.

Even if the ICE office in Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, investigated all marriage fraud cases, another issue is whether the U.S. attorney would be able to prosecute them. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas did not have any comment.

Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, said the issues extend beyond marriage fraud probes. He said ICE and USCIS "cook the books" so they don't have to do investigations. He also said USCIS cares more about finishing applications than in making sure those it admits are deserving.

"Their focus is customer service for the foreign national applying for the greatest privilege in the history of humanity -- American citizenship -- instead of providing national security protection," he said.

Mr. Culberson obtained a memo from the Houston USCIS office that offers time off for employees who churn out cases quickly. According to the memo, completing an average of six cases a day over a given quarter earned an employee an extra day off and averaging 10 cases per day for the quarter earned an employee a week's time off.

"The Houston office has had a reputation of being an easy mark for the foreign national that wants to slip into the country," Mr. Culberson said.

He said he was so angry during at meeting with CIS officials in Houston last year that he pulled out a picture of a first-grade class and told the employees that they had it wrong.

"It isn't about quotas; it's about protecting these children," he told them. "You've got your priorities totally backwards, and it's outrageous, appalling and unacceptable that you're more concerned about that Iraqi or that Muslim terrorist out in the lobby than you are the national security of the United States."

USCIS is without a director, and Mr. Culberson said he hopes and thinks Emilio Gonzalez, whom President Bush has nominated for the slot, can right the agency.

Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for USCIS, said that his agency and ICE work together on fraud cases and that even when ICE doesn't open an investigation, USCIS does its own checks.

"When ICE declines to open a criminal investigation, USCIS suspends the adjudication and conducts an administrative inquiry aimed at verifying the suspected fraud," he said.

He also said the time-off incentives don't affect adjudicators' abilities.

"USCIS evaluates employee performance on both productivity and quality. National security is not sacrificed for expediency," he said.

Minutemen see success

A local chapter of the Minuteman Project in Herndon plan to begin surveillance of local day laborers and their employers in the coming days and report the findings to federal tax and immigration officials. Two dozen people turned out for the group’s first organizational meeting last week at the Herndon Fortnightly Library, where chapter founder George Taplin sought volunteers and donations. Taplin said those who try to come into the county illegally are robbing those that are here legally of valuable resources and services. A Houston chapter of the Minutemen were successfully in closing down two day labor sites.

“The IRS encourages people to call if they see tax fraud. Well, we're actively going to look for it,� Taplin said. “They've said they can't do it all and have asked for help. We're here to help.�

Minuteman volunteers said they will be using cameras to track the comings and goings at day laborer gathering spots. A new center is expected to open in December and will be run by local nonprofit Project Hope and Harmony with the assistance of a Fairfax County grant. Taplin said the Minutemen will follow workers to their job sites to target those who employ illegal aliens for possible tax evasion. In addition, he said, the group will follow the workers to their homes looking for potential zoning violations, primarily based on the number of occupants. Local Minutemen will not be allowed to carry weapons and will be instructed to avoid confrontations. Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency would accept and investigate information from the Minutemen like it does from the general public.

From anti-immigration and civilian-militia bills that have been introduced in Congress to the countless broken promises by senators. Citizens are just realizing the constant flood of illegal aliens from the southern border and welcoming the Minutemen to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California and endorsing their plan to patrol the state’s southern border. I believe that everyone who wants to immigrate to this country should follow the rules and enter this country legally.

Tightly securing the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border is not very challenging for the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol with the help of the National Guard, and it is absurd to suggest that, something less adequate is the only possible answer. The truth is that illegal immigration is on the rise not only because it is possible to get across our border but also because corporations and employers on the U.S. side of the border continue to rely on, exploit, attract and in some cases recruit cheap and illegal labor. Knowing that there is an employer willing to violate U.S. law and hire an undocumented immigrant only serves as an incentive for illegal aliens to cross the border. To this end, we need to introduced legislation that would impose a hefty fine to employers per undocumented worker.

If anti-immigration groups, such as the Minutemen, are truly serious about stemming the flow of illegal immigration, they should also picket and/or boycott the work sites and employers that encourage illegal immigration by hiring undocumented immigrants.

Iran plans to attack Israel

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". "The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," he told a conference in Tehran entitled 'The world without Zionism'. "The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said. "As the imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at regime rallies. Addressing some 4,000 vetted and approved students gathered in an Interior Ministry conference hall, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and a point "where the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come".

"The Islamic umma (community) will not allow its historic enemy to live in its heartland," he said in the fiery speech that centered on an "historic war between the oppressor and the world of Islam". The term “oppressor� is used by the clerical regime to refer to the United States. "We should not settle for a piece of land," he said of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. "Anyone who signs a treaty which recognizes the entity of Israel means he has signed the surrender of the Muslim world."

Acceptable Reason?

There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding.

Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer.

It was then that Lt. Nelson took the decision that could jeopardize his service career. "We decided to burn the bodies," one soldier recounts, "because they were bloated and they stank." News of this cremation may have remained on these scorching hills of southern Afghanistan, had the gruesome act not been recorded on film by an Australian photojournalist, Stephen Dupont. Instead, when the footage aired on Australian TV on Wednesday, it unleashed world outrage. A Pentagon spokesman described the incident as "repugnant" and said that the army was launching a criminal investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.

Fueling the furor was the fact that the TV report showed that after the bodies were torched, a U.S. Psychological-Operations team descended on Gonbaz in Humvees with their loudspeakers booming: "Taliban, you are cowardly dogs. You are too scared to come down and retrieve the bodies. This just proves you are the lady-boys we always believed you to be."

Muslims traditionally bury their dead, and as one Kabul cleric Mohammed Omar told newsmen, "The burning of these bodies is an offense against Muslims every where. Bodies are burned only in Hell." But as one U.S. officer in Kandahar pointed out, the Taliban and al Qaeda never show any qualms about defiling the bodies of dead Afghan or American soldiers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, anxious to quell any new wave of protests against the U.S. troops in Afghanistan of the sort that followed allegations of Koran desecration at Guantanamo, publicly condemned the burnings. A statement from the U.S. military command for Afghanistan said, "Under no circumstances does U.S. Central Command condone the desecration, abuse or inappropriate treatment of enemy combatants."

Herndon Residents take a stand

A Hispanic advocacy group is challenging plans by the Herndon Minutemen to videotape and report findings on illegal aliens at the town's day-laborer center, describing such actions as racial profiling. Herndon-area Minutemen plan to videotape and photograph employers hiring illegal aliens at a recently approved day-laborer center, follow them to work sites and report them to the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and state employment agencies, which is perfectly legal under the current law. The group also plans to monitor zoning violations, identify cases in which absentee landlords rent to illegal aliens and investigate instances of city officials offering public services to illegal aliens.

Modeling their approach on Houston's "Operation Spotlight," the Minutemen aim to hinder illegal immigration in Herndon by cracking down on employers, landlords and city officials who illegally aid aliens. The larger, Arizona-based Minutemen group has thousands of civilian members patrolling borders from California to Texas and in eight northern states this month through the "Secure Our Borders" program.

Delay case Delayed

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay appeared in court to face campaign finance charges on Friday, but the session was cut short by his lawyer's charge that the judge was politically biased against the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. Inside the courtroom, Judge Bob Perkins told defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin that "the best way for me to handle" the request for a new judge would be to defer further proceedings.

State District Judge Bob Perkins was to arraign DeLay on conspiracy and money laundering charges, but postponed the hearing until another judge could rule on a defence motion that argued that he could not conduct a fair trial because he is a Democrat who gave money to Democratic candidates and the activist group MoveOn.org. The charges against Perkins follow DeLay's repeated assertions that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat who is leading the campaign finance investigation, is out to get him.

He and colleagues Jim Ellis and John Colyandro have been indicted by state grand juries in Austin for conspiracy and money laundering in a campaign-finance scheme conducted through DeLay's political action committee. They are accused of laundering $190,000 in corporate campaign contributions through the Republican National Committee for distribution to Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law forbids the use of corporate money in political campaigns. DeLay could face up to life in prison if convicted.

DeLay said Earle targeted him because his political action committee helped Republicans take control of the Texas Legislature for the first time since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The legislature, under guidance from DeLay, then conducted a remapping of Texas congressional districts. Prosecutor Ronnie Earle signaled he intends to contest the request for a new judge.

DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin, one of Texas' most prominent defence attorneys, told reporters after the hearing that Perkins had contributed to MoveOn.org and to Democratic candidates since the case came into his court a year ago. DeGuerin told Perkins that MoveOn.org was selling T-shirts of DeLay's mug shot taken after he turned himself in on Thursday. DeLay, who was fingerprinted and put up bail of $10,000, is smiling broadly in the mug shot.


Source: www.tray.com

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Immigration Reform

Immigration reform is emotional, polarizing and politically tricky as was demonstrated at a Utah forum he hosted, says Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, a man hated by anti-immigration groups because he helps lead the fight for President Bush's immigration-reform proposals.

Congress is expected to debate such solutions beginning this fall, with Bush and GOP leaders vowing to pass a comprehensive reform bill within a year. Many states are not waiting for a federal solution and are pushing ahead with steps of their own. For example, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson recently declared a state of emergency in four counties along the border because of violence, drug smuggling and increased numbers of undocumented immigrants. It allowed him to free up extra money for everything from fighting drug smuggling to beefing up state border security. Also, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. pledged, in a recent visit with Mexico President Vicente Fox, to take a lead with the help of the Western Governors Association to find solutions to immigration issues.

At least 100 bills, designed to solve various aspects of immigration problems, have been introduced in Congress so far this year. Leaders have vowed to try to pass one big comprehensive reform bill within a year. Vowing to pass such a bill is ambitious since voter are going very weak of empty promises.

One idea is to match foreign workers with employers who cannot find U.S. labor to fill their jobs. It would allow aliens, including those already here illegally, to apply for a renewable, legal stay for a certain period. The period varies among proposals between three and six years. Bush has said if foreigners had such a program available, he believes most would enter legally for a time, save up money and then return home. But staying permanently and earning citizenship could also be allowed. Critics say it may simply lead more businesses to seek cheap foreign labor.

Congressman Chris Cannon believes most people want illegals to be able to earn legal status and maybe even citizenship. They also want a system that would allow needed workers to enter the U.S. temporarily. Cannon said discussion among congressional members also indicates that most want to ensure reform will recognize that "being here illegally will not get you at the head of the line for citizenship over those who come later" legally. In short, undocumented aliens would start at the back of the line whenever they come forward to seek legal status.

Some reform already has arrived. Earlier this year, Congress tacked many immigration reforms onto the end of a military spending bill. That included prohibiting states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens; making driver's licenses more counterfeit-proof; making it easier for the Homeland Security Department to waive all legal requirements in order to build barriers along the Mexican border; and making it easier to exclude or deport anyone deemed to be supporting terrorism.

From: George Andrews

A collogue of mine referred me to your Border Police entry (A call to arms) on your blog. Thank you for your kind words regarding my work. I genuinely appreciate it.

George Andrews
Executive Director
California Border Police Committee
www.calborderpolice.com
Phone (916) 443-6703
Fax (916) 443-6695

Black Gang Violence

In the days leading up to a white supremacist march, ministers pleaded with Toledo residents to stay calm and community leaders organized peace rallies. Authorities even delayed releasing the route so protesters wouldn't know where the group planned to march. It wasn't enough to stop an angry mob that included gang members from looting and burning a neighborhood bar, smashing the windows of a gas station and hurling rocks and bottles at police on Saturday. Twelve officers were injured, one suffering a concussion when a brick flew through her cruiser window. In all, 114 people were arrested on charges including assault, vandalism, failure to disperse and overnight curfew violations.

Much of the anger boiled over because people were upset that city leaders were willing to allow the supremacists to walk through the neighborhood and shout insults, residents and authorities said. Authorities said there was little they could do to stop the group, because they did not apply for a parade permit and instead planned to walk along sidewalks.

A gang member in a mask threatened to shoot him, and others cursed him for allowing the march, the mayor said. He said he didn't know if the man who threatened him was actually armed, but he blamed gangs for much of the violence. The march had been called off because of the crowds, and the white supremacists had left.

The neo-Nazi group, known as "America's Nazi Party," said they came to the city because of a dispute between neighbors, one white and the other black. Police began receiving word midweek from officers on the street that gangs were going to descend on the neighborhood in protest, the police chief said. The disturbances were confined to a 1-square-mile area, but the crowd swelled to about 600 people, overwhelming police.

Who the hell cares what Ted Kennedy says?

Last week was sadly besmirched by more bile from Ted Kennedy, who’s apparently now taking lessons in bloviation from ex-Klansman Robert C. Byrd. Kennedy loves democracy so much that he wanted to commemorate its historic spread by demanding that 12,000 U.S. troops — or more, for good measure — flee the scene and forget the whole mess ever happened. At least he’s finally started discussing things he knows about.

In truth, the people of Iraq took the election much better than Teddy Kennedy did. Despite the New York Times’ dire warning of “a poorly prepared election conducted in an atmosphere of escalating violence and lawlessness,� Iraqis proved themselves much more resilient than liberals in America expected. Ali Fadel, Baghdad’s new mayor, says he wants to erect a statue to numbskull imperialist cowboy George W. Bush, noting that Bush “is the symbol of freedom." The stupid Iraqi has evidently not yet discovered Washington’s fiendish plot to steal his oil and transform his country into a Jewish paradise.

More Iraqis turned out to vote than anyone expected. Liberals could not possibly have predicted such an overwhelming show of manpower, because they thought all the Iraqis — and all the troops now valiantly protecting them — would be dead by now. Liberals like to pick on Republicans because we said there were WMD in Iraq (there were), but their half-baked predictions are supposed to be forgotten. Note to the Left: they’re not. We remember, even if you don’t.

And the ungodly infatuation with opposing President Bush continues. Columnist Bob Herbert’s still at it, now claiming that, in spite of the lovely little election thingy, “there was no respite from the carnage.� Why is that necessary? Millions of people bravely defied terrorism to exercise their newfound voting rights, and there’s Bob Herbert, hooting at them.

It’s understandable that John Kerry would be a bit soured on this election business (thank you, Ohio), but Harry Reid really has no excuse. Neither does Nancy Pelosi. For these two embarrassments to come out and harangue Bush about an “exit strategy� is outlandish. To repeat: we just had an election in Iraq. Iraq used to be in the “Axis of Evil.� What was once grouped with Iran and North Korea is now grouped with Japan, Russia, and Germany. I believe perhaps Bush’s favorite saying — “freedom is on the march� — may have some truth to it.

Liberals pride themselves on being able to turn to the families of fallen soldiers for political help, but even that hasn’t gone well for them of late. “To see the Iraqi people thumbing their nose at insurgents and terrorists and saying, 'We're going to go vote,'� said Nelson Carman who lost his twenty-year old son in Iraq, “there's a sense of pride and yet it can be sobering."

It’s astounding that a person who lost a child could be more rational than, say, the House Democratic leader. Nancy Pelosi has a job she’ll never lose, money, and fame, but she lacks the sense of Nelson Carman, whose son is now deceased. What, pray tell, does that say about our friends in the Democratic Party? They may be even more unhinged than we thought.

It is a fact, contrary to all the nonsense emanating from liberal circles, that Iraq is an achievement that even Bush couldn’t have imagined. Who would have thought, honestly, that the elections could have possibly gone so well? You can say you were optimistic, but nobody thought 60% would come out to vote. Nobody thought the purple-fingered citizenry would dance merrily in the streets. Nobody thought terrorists would be held back as spectacularly as they were. And nobody thought George Bush would be proved so awesomely right.

One shudders at the prospect of what a President Kerry would have done prior to January 30. Would elections have occurred? Would terrorists ‘round the world be shivering in fear? Doubtful, on both counts. If Kerry was president, we’d be at the U.N.—or a fun summit in France. That’s “democracy� to a Democrat.

Bolton explains to Yale why U.N. screws America

Anyone who attended this week's Yale Political Union meeting can affirm, there was much to appreciate about Bolton's visit to campus. For the man who addressed a packed crowd of Yalies on Monday night, October 3, Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, was candidly open about failures and flaws of the organization to which he purports to be the United States' diplomat. The ambassador not only addressed some 500 students, but spoke on a very controversial and secretive topic, and answered many feisty questions from the audience directly and forthrightly.

The ambassador's central contention, was that U.N. member states should no longer be required to pay their annual dues -- instead, the United Nations should solicit voluntary contributions for specified projects. He went on, to explain why the United States should not continue to pay 22 percent of the U.N.'s budget when the General Assembly of 191 countries is frequently reckless, irresponsible and even corrupt. "Why shouldn't we pay for what we want, instead of being billed for what we get?" Bolton asked rhetorically at two separate points.

The ambassador's speech was smoothly delivered without any interruptions. Charity organizations all do very well, but the United Nations, as an institution of global diplomacy and government that has been the leading forum for peace talks and peace treaties since 1945 aspires to be a little more than the Salvation Army. It doesn't take a genius to see that if Bolton had his way, corrupt governments would be cut back dramatically, and the United Nations would be gutted of its cancerous tumor that has taken control.

The attitude that we should simply "pay for what we want", should be the U.S. government's official position on foreign affairs. But perhaps I should not be so surprised, during the ambassador's confirmation hearings Democrats tried repeatedly to stall the nomination, and would appease any country, no matter the level of corruption, in hopes of a Walden Utopia. It is, to say the least, very intellectually stimulating to hear Bush's U.N. envoy explaining why the entire premise on which the United Nations is based is flawed and thus why it’s funding should be cut.

Hearing Bolton speak was, I hope, a thoroughly healthy experience for all the liberal and moderate Yalies who were in attendance. Primarily, this is because it served as a reminder that, outside of the Yale bubble, the mainstream Middle America hold strong ethical beliefs, and are the true power of this nation. Most ivy leaguers are so high in their ivory-towers that they can’t see what the population is doing and what it wants. After all, this nation was founded for the people, and by the people.

It was also healthy to see Bolton because it provided us with an opportunity to reflect upon why John Bolton, and the president who nominated him, care so deeply about U.N. reform. Does the United Nations have serious problems as an institution? Yes. And is it in desperate need of reform? Of course. But many nations are profiting off U.N. corruption, that a need for change is being ignored. What it will most assuredly do is awaken Bolton's colleagues and dampen evil nation’s chances of looting the United Nations blind.

Bolton's supreme confidence notwithstanding, we can tackle the world's problems on our own, only if we stand united as a country. Having an organization like the United Nations completely dysfunctional is something Americans need to stand up to, and refuse to pay an organization to screws us. If that means we, as the wealthiest state on earth by a long shot, have to refuse to pay dues, then so be it. We can save the money far more easily than we can afford to continue to support a criminal organization like the United Nations.

Howard Dean running his mouth again

Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, in a sick and stunningly opportunistic attempt to profit politically from the recent heinous murders of six immigrant farm workers in Georgia, released a statement yesterday blaming the Minutemen border watch movement for somehow inciting this crime.

In his blatant attempt at race baiting, Dean – carrying on the despicable tradition of racial demagoguery practiced by such Democrats as Bull Connor, Orval Faubus and Rep. Charles Rangel – yesterday accused the Minutemen of “spreading fear and hatred in America.�

Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC�), made the following statement: “By Howard Dean’s logic, Dean’s fellow Democrats, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, are responsible for any hate crime perpetrated against Hispanics in their states, because both Democrat governors have declared states of emergency on their respective borders with Mexico.

“Governors Richardson and Napolitano are not spreading fear and hatred in America, nor are the Minutemen. We are bringing attention to the dire national security crisis, and to an immigration policy that has created a condition of catastrophic lawlessness and vulnerability at our wide-open borders.

“Dean ignores the fact that most crimes committed against illegal immigrants are perpetrated by members of well-established illegal immigrant gangs – run by international criminal cartels ruthlessly trafficking drugs, weapons, and impoverished migrants into our sovereign territory. These gangs prey on illegal immigrants and our citizens alike, in communities all across America. Securing our borders is pro-immigrant. Once the borders are secured, all who come here through legal ports of entry will be required to have legal status thus barring criminals and gang members from entry.

“It is irresponsible rhetoric like Dean’s that makes it more difficult for serious people to remedy a situation that leaves America vulnerable to terrorist attacks and organized crime – which brutalizes, oppresses and violently exploits the least fortunate among us. Dean should leave behind the contemptible race-baiting politics of the 19th and 20th Centuries and join those of us who are trying to solve America’s 21st Century problems.�

MCDC is conducting a month-long border watch program this October called “Secure Our Borders.� An estimated four thousand trained Minuteman volunteers will participate in non-confrontational border watch efforts on America's northern and southern borders. Minutemen act as extra eyes and ears for the Border Patrol and will report directly to authorities any sightings of border crossings at other than legal ports of entry.

A call to arms

Volunteers in California are one line in the fight against immigration, and have been hitting the streets across California to start gathering the nearly 600,000 signatures of registered voters that will be required by Dec. 12 to put the border police measure on the June 2006 ballot. According to the initiative, officers would be empowered to make arrests and would then transfer the suspects to federal immigration authorities. Generally speaking, the people voting in a primary are more conservative than in a general election, and a more conservative electorate could boost the measure's chances.

George Andrews, executive director for the California Border Police Initiative in Sacramento has been a major driving force for the proposed initiative. Another major contributor is Assemblyman Ray Haynes, who says he is fed up with the droves of people hopping the international border and entering the United States from Mexico illegally. Estimates suggest as many as 10 million people are in the United States illegally, 3 million of them in California. Haynes is proposing to create a state border force of 2,000 to 3,000 agents that would operate on an annual budget ranging from $200 million to $300 million. If passed by voters, the agency could be up and running by the end of next year, he said.

The federal government is not protecting our border and I am tired of waiting for congress to do anything about it. So I think it's time that we stop hoping for the government to enforce the law, and do it ourselves. Not only do we have to protect ourselves from the invasion of illegal immigrants, we also have to protect ourselves from the Mexican army and government supported smugglers.

When the founding fathers where writing the Bill of Rights a clear picture was given of what a citizen could do. The very first right a citizen has is the freedom of speech. That is how I am able to communicate with you today. In some countries like: Iran, Syria, North Korea, Vietnam, Russia, China, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela; to name a few, have no protection of speech, so citizens are afraid to speak against the government. The next and very important able given to citizens was the right to a militia. The Minutemen, founded by person x, is a good example of a militia that is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. This is not something that can be taken lightly or brushed away. If we do not demand access to our rights, they will be taken away.

That is why I am calling every person I can into action. Every able body that can carry a firearm needs to mass on the southern border and stop the incursions by foreign powers. Especially since Mexicans are not the only nationality that is illegally crossing the border. Iranians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians, have been seen crossing the border. Why does a citizen have to wait for an event to happen before it can see its military spring into action?

Mexican army Ranch Rescue 21 border incursions Arizona Border

Sandy Berger Facing Another Slap on the Wrest

Less than a month after he was sentenced for stealing and destroying top national security documents, former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger has been charged with violating the terms of his probation.

Virginia police say the top Clinton aide was nabbed for reckless driving on Sept. 10 after he was clocked doing 88 miles-per-hour in a 55-mile zone on Interstate 66, a major highway going into Washington.

On Wednesday, Berger appeared before U.S. District Magistrate Deborah Robinson, the same judge who sentenced him in the theft case two days before the speeding incident. Judge Robinson told the court that because Berger's new crime had violated the terms of his probation, she's considering increasing his sentence. Before his latest brush with the law, Berger was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, perform 100 hours of community service and spend two years on probation.

If you want to contact the judge about here actions, give her a call.
(202) 354-3167

Paying for illegal immigrants before disabled Americans

A representative from Athens said he supports a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from attending public universities in Georgia. Sen. Brian Kemp, R-Athens, said he supports Senate Bill 170, which would require people to prove their legal status to receive taxpayer-funded services such as public colleges, welfare and public housing. Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, said that under the proposed law, college applicants would have to show a form of identification that proves their status as legal residents, such as a driver’s license, military ID, green card or visa.

The only current requirement for proving Georgia residency is to have a Georgia address, so illegal immigrants in the state can get in-state tuition, he said. Kemp said he supports the bill because Georgia residents already have a difficult time getting into the University, and they should get in before illegal immigrants.

Currently the University has only four undocumented immigrant students, said Provost Arnett Mace.

Salvador Arriola, a senior from Dalton and member of the Hispanic Student Association, said he does not support Senate Bill 170. He said he believes that illegal immigrants should have the opportunity to attend college.

“Maybe it’ll help them in the long run,� he said.

However, Kemp, the vice chairman of the Georgia Senate Committee on Higher Education, said tuition does not pay the entire cost of attendance. “The state pays a good portion of that,� he said. Arlethia Perry-Johnson, spokeswoman for the Board of Regents, said in-state tuition pays about 25 percent and tax dollars pay about 75 percent of students’ cost of attendance.

Out-of-state students pay the full cost of tuition, she said.

Admission to public colleges in Georgia is based on merit, not residence status, and the regents are interested in resident status only to determine tuition, she said. Rogers, who introduced the bill, said that by providing services to illegal immigrants, the state is spending millions of dollars in benefits daily on people who have not paid for them.

He said the state does not have enough money to pay benefits to all disabled residents, yet it spends money on services for illegal immigrants. The government has limited resources, Rogers said, and the purpose of the proposed law is to ensure tax dollars are spent on taxpayers.

“Do we have an unlimited supply of resources? The answer is no,� he said.

He said that it is not the U.S. government’s responsibility to figure out what illegal immigrants can do if they are barred from attending public universities.
“They should return to wherever their home country is,� Rogers said.

Choosing aliens over Americans

No matter what all the politicians and activists want, African-Americans and impoverished white Cajuns will not be first in line to rebuild the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Latino immigrants, many of them undocumented, will. And when they're done, they're going to stay, making New Orleans look like Los Angeles.

It's the federal government that will have made the transformation possible, further exposing the hollowness of the immigration debate.

President Bush has promised that Washington will pick up the greater part of the cost for "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen." To that end, he suspended provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act that would have required government contractors to pay prevailing wages in Louisiana and devastated parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. And the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily suspended sanctioning employers who hire workers who cannot document their citizenship. The idea is to benefit Americans who may have lost everything in the hurricane, but the main effect will be to let contractors hire illegal immigrants.

Mexican and Central American laborers are already arriving in southeastern Louisiana. One construction firm based in Metairie, La., sent a foreman to Houston to round up 150 workers willing to do cleanup work for $15 an hour, more than twice their wages in Texas. The men -- most of whom are undocumented, according to news accounts -- live outside New Orleans in mobile homes without running water and electricity. The foreman expects them to stay "until there's no more work," but "there's going to be a lot of construction jobs for a really long time."

Because they are young and lack roots in the United States, many recent migrants are ideal for the explosion of construction jobs to come. Those living in the United States will relocate to the Gulf Coast, while others will come from south of the border. Most will not intend to stay where their new jobs are, but the longer the jobs last, the more likely it is that they will settle permanently.

One recent poll of New Orleans evacuees living in Houston emergency shelters found that fewer than half intend to return home. In part, their places will be taken by the migrant workers. Former President Clinton recently hinted as much on NBC's Meet the Press when he said that New Orleans will be resettled with a different population.

It is not the first time that hurricanes and other natural disasters have triggered population movements. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch slammed into Central America, sending waves of migrants northward. The 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador produced similar shifts.

The effects of Hurricane Andrew may better foretell New Orleans' future. The 1992 storm displaced 250,000 residents in southeastern Florida. The construction boom that followed attracted large numbers of Latin American immigrants, who rebuilt towns such as Homestead, whose Latino population has increased by 50 percent since then.

At the same time, U.S. construction companies have become increasingly reliant on Latino immigrant labor. In 1990, only 3.3 percent of construction workers were Mexican immigrants. Ten years later, the number was 8.5 percent. In 2004, 17 percent of Latino immigrants worked in the business, a higher percentage than in any other industry.

Reliance on immigrant labor to complete huge projects is part of U.S. history. In the early 19th century, mostly Irish immigrant laborers, who worked for as little as 37 1/2 cents an hour, built the Erie Canal, one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. Later that century, Italian immigrants, sometimes making just $1.50 a day, were the backbone of the work force that constructed the New York subway system.

In 1890, 90 percent of New York City's public works employees, and 99 percent of Chicago's street workers, were Italian.

After Congress authorized construction of the transcontinental railroad in 1862, one of the most ambitious projects in U.S. history, Charles Crocker, head of construction for the Central Pacific Railroad, recognized that the Civil War was creating a labor shortage. So he turned to Chinese immigrants. By 1867, 12,000 of Central Pacific's 13,500 workers were Chinese immigrants, who were paid between $26 and $35 for a six-day workweek of 12 hours a day.

At the turn of the 20th century, Mexican immigrant laborers did most of the railroad construction in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

The major difference between then and now is that neither the American public nor the government will admit their dependence on a labor force that is heavily undocumented. When Mexican President Vicente Fox offered to provide Mexican labor to help rebuild New Orleans -- "If there is anything Mexicans are good at, it is construction," he said -- the federal government ignored him. At the same time, some of the undocumented Mexicans who have cleaned up and begun to rebuild Biloxi, Miss., are wondering whether they deserve at least a temporary visa so they can live in the United States legally.
The White House recently said that it will push its plan to allow illegal immigrants already in the United States to become legal guest workers. Good. Hurricane Katrina exposed the nation's black-white divide. Post-Katrina reconstruction will soon spotlight the hypocrisy of refusing to grant legal status to those who will rebuild the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

NH Police fight aliens

Frustration can lead law enforcement into looking into other options to enforce laws, and that is precisely what New Ipswich Chief Garrett Chamberlain did. Using the no trespassing law, Chamberlain charged Jorge Mora Ramirez an illegal alien with trespassing. Ramirez was found with a fake ID and a Mexican driver’s license when his vehicle broke down back in April of this year.

L. Phillips Runyon of Jaffrey District Court had ruled the Chief’s actions were unconstitutional. The District judge stated only the federal government could enforce immigration laws. However, according to published reports, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] did not want to take ‘workers’ into custody. ICE is the federal agency responsible for insuring immigration in the U.S. is legal. Recently President Bush’s appointment of Julie Meyer to head-up the department, the largest enforcement arm of Homeland Security has come under fire as being a political appointment.

The Runyon’s ruling has not deterred the stalwart police chief. Recently he was one of three featured speakers at a celebration of the signing of the Constitution featured by the New Hampshire Center for Constitutional Studies’. Other speakers included Rep. Tom Tancredo, [R-Colo.], a well known advocate for immigration reform and the founder of the Minuteman Project Jim Gilchrist.

In vowing to fight against illegal immigration, Chamberlain made a point to note that he would investigate a state law which prohibits employing illegal alien workers and fines the employer $1000 per day for each day the alien works. In addition, Chamberlain would like to see Attorney General Kelly Ayotte formulate a task force on illegal aliens.

Chamberlain has been with the New Ipswich Police Department since November 2002. He holds an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice and has been in law enforcement since 1993.

CITIZENS UNITE

America is under “siege.� It only takes “common sense� to realize and recognize what the past years of uncontrolled illegal immigration is doing to our country. It is “common sense� that explains why our country's enhancement with “political correctness� is the “pathway to destruction.�

It is not “politically incorrect� to state that our problem is due in large part to: Mexicans, Latinos, Hispanics, Colombians, Venezuelans, etc., crossing our southern borders illegally. Who else would cross there? Icelanders? It is important to recognize that the majority of the states within our country are being razed by illegal aliens. It is not just our states bordering Mexico, it is Illinois, new York, new Hampshire, Michigan, etc., that are being traumatized by crime, failing educational systems, overwhelmed health care systems, gang intimidation, drugs, over-populated housing, and more. California is doomed unless governor Swarzennegor wakes up and takes action!

Amnesty, of any form, is not the answer! Amnesty will not educate, employ, or even ensure that illegal aliens register. It will only provide "special interests" lawyers with another antagonist to our legal system. Each and every one of you are responsible for ignoring this problem and managing our country with “gross negligence.� Your citizens are waiting for action and you refuse to listen to their demands that continue to amplify!


Our citizens are in danger from “out of control� gang activity, crime, drug activity, uninsured and non-licensed drivers, rapists and child molesters, burglary, larceny, etc. Our citizens are forced to subsidize these very same activities by paying high property and income taxes. Our veterans, seniors, poor, homeless, etc., suffer the effects of government funds allocated to support illegal aliens. Our children's education is decaying from non-english speaking students, and families that make their own “seasonal� school schedules. Finally, it is certain that potential terrorists and anti-Americans have and continue to, infiltrate our country, the “horrific� consequence of this fact upon our citizens shall surely come.

Democrats are keen obstructionists!!!

Democrats are deeply conflicted about how to vote on the nomination of Judge John Roberts Jr. to be the 17th chief justice of the United States, and appear divided about how, and whether, to use their vote to send a message to President George W. Bush as he selects a candidate to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy.

Roberts' unflappable performance during three days of questioning has clearly put Democrats in a quandary. Some say a strong vote against his nomination could prod the White House into naming a centrist to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a crucial swing vote. Others say that supporting the Roberts nomination could make Democrats appear reasonable, giving them more credibility to oppose the next nominee.

As the Judiciary Committee wrapped up its questioning of Roberts on Thursday morning, Democrats, who have repeatedly assailed the nominee for not being forthcoming, expressed obvious frustration. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, told Roberts that she had "one impression of you when we had our hour in private," and another at the hearing.

That angst is spilling over into the rest of the Democratic caucus, and no Democrat interviewed Thursday would commit one way or the other on the vote. Reid said that six of the eight Democrats on the judiciary panel had conferred, but were still undecided.
Representatives of liberal advocacy groups, who are pressing Democrats to oppose the nomination, said they felt confident of a straight party-line vote, or close to it, when the committee takes up the nomination next Thursday.

The vote will come as Democrats sense Bush is vulnerable. His poll numbers are at the lowest point of his presidency amid public outrage over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Democrats hope to turn that outrage into a powerful message to voters during the 2006 midterm elections.

But Democrats are keenly aware that they risk being labeled obstructionist if they vote in a bloc against a nominee like Roberts, whose legal qualifications are impeccable. And though they have complained bitterly that the White House has refused to provide them access to legal memorandums Roberts wrote when he worked for the first Bush administration, Democrats appear to have little appetite to block the nomination by filibuster on the Senate floor.
Roberts' unflappable performance during three days of questioning has clearly put Democrats in a quandary. Some say a strong vote against his nomination could prod the White House into naming a centrist to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a crucial swing vote. Others say that supporting the Roberts nomination could make Democrats appear reasonable, giving them more credibility to oppose the next nominee.

Local, state, and Federal: Whats going on?

I can understand why CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, John Stewart, and all the other left-wing liberal media that hate President Bush tainting certain facts. Hopefully, partisan politics are not getting in the way of getting these facts straight. Bush declared a state of emergency before the storm, and then the federal government suggested assistance immediately after the storm. The federal government does not have the authority under U.S. law to commit or send troops or National Guardsmen to any locale until the governor requests and/or approves such assistance. But the assistance was delayed for days by an indecisive governor Blanco.

Is it the Bush administration's fault that every New Orleans school bus now sits under water, unused to evacuate citizens who, either by their own choice or by their inability to evacuate, remained in the city after the storm? Where does the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans lie in this? Mayor Ray Nagin has been parading around on television networks complaining about the government, but he couldn’t, and still can’t enforce a mandatory evacuation. Is it the Bush administration’s fault that people did not evacuate (nor still have not) when “ordered� under mandatory evacuation?Is it the Bush administration’s fault that the governor of Louisiana did not activate her National Guard in a timely manner? The National Guard is under direct state control, and it appears that the governor of Louisiana did not activate it in mass force until 2½ to three days after the storm hit.

Is it the Bush administration’s fault that up to 400 New Orleans police officers left their post and ran away from the recovery process, some being a part of the looting process? I wonder if New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass has started an investigation into his officers and himself, and the actions during and after the hurricane. And to make things worse, Eddie Compass is still the chief trying to maintain law and order. If he couldn’t do it then, then why should we trust him now? When is this man facing re-election?

Pretty soon we will be reading that the Bush administration is to blame for the hurricane hitting the U.S. mainland. I believe that the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana showed very poor leadership and let their constituents down. It is easy to blame the federal government for all the ills in our society. The majority of the left-wing media would lead us to believe that. Yes, assistance was much too slow than should be acceptable for a host of reasons. FEMA did not respond as it should have and yes, in the end, there will be plenty of people to blame, much finger pointing will be done and department/agency managers will be held accountable.

Media blinders

Unknown to millions of interested Americans, a judge on thursday ordered the conditional release of a Dutch teenager in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, but he remains a suspect, his defense attorney said. Joran van der Sloot, 18, could be released from jail as early as Saturday and remain free pending the outcome of the probe. The Kalpoe brothers were released on July 4 but were re-arrested last week. The announcement came a day after a hearing in which Carlo argued that prosecutors have produced no evidence that his client was involved in Holloway's disappearance or that a crime had been committed. A judge ordered Satish Kalpoe to remain jailed another eight days, said government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said, without giving further details. The judge was still to rule on whether to continue holding or release Deepak Satish. Suspects can be detained for 116 days without charge in the Dutch Caribbean island.

Unfortunately, the only ‘news worthy’ stories in the United States is testimonials and pictures from hurricane Katrina, and gas prices. Yes it is unfortunate what happened to gulf coast residents in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, but that is the coast of living next to the ocean, and not paying attention to evacuation notices. The only good thing that came out of the hurricane is the disappearance of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan. Hopefully she was and will stay littered with the rest of the garbage.

Less traumatic then a hurricane was the media coverage given to the Natalee Holloway case in Aruba. At first the media and public were sure it was the two security officers. Showing the total incompetence of the Aruban government was the looney “Twiggy�. She called into question the three teenage witnesses, and later learned they may be prime suspects. But now into the stage of proving the case, the lack of evidence is becoming more evident. Yes you can say you think this person may be guilt, but the accused has a right to a trial.

Plans to betray Sheehan already in the works by left

Cindy Sheehan a ‘Gold Star Mom’ is anything but worthy of a gold star. What did she do or is she doing to deserve any degree of honor, give birth? Raise a child to manhood? To give a mother her due she certainly raised a responsible man who voluntarily gave his life to a cause greater than himself. He died for a cause which keeps the war on terror and its destruction “over there� and not in American streets; a cause which has freed fifty million Arabic people, established two emerging Arabic democracies, and has removed a homicidal dictator from absolute power over his people. He died for a cause which his mother seems determined to invalidate as she absorbs the media attention that should be reserved for her son.

Perhaps the most concerning aspect of Sheehan is the media’s determination to keep this story alive. Notice the focus is not on Mrs. Sheehan’s loss but on her inability to gain a second audience with the President. If this were Aruba, Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, or Lacy Peterson we’d be bludgeoned by what her son Casey’s last letter had said, what he was like as a child, we’d be privy to his first steps and his first bike ride, and perhaps what his favorite MRE was. But this isn’t about her son is it? There is a concerted effort by the media to enforce the perception that the President is dodging this woman because he is guilty and stubbornly refuses to admit that she is right. Already there are reports on how Sheehan may well be the turning point of public opinion on the war. What the press, the left, and the Shee-heads are trying to accomplish isn’t remotely new. It’s the same strategy the DNC employed in a failed effort to get John “I’m a hero� Kerry elected without a platform.

Cindy Sheehan was nothing more than a grieving mother until some left wing groups saw an opportunity to exploit this woman’s mental duress to gain the media spotlight. Mrs. Sheehan’s vigil is not about her son, nor is it about getting answers; her cause is entirely about defaming the President to give the left an opportunity to regain seats in the Senate and the House and possibly a shot at the White House in 2008. Constant negative media pounding of the President has reduced his poll numbers just as they did during the year prior to the 2004 Presidential election. America is fortunate to have a leader who can and will stay the course and has little concern over poll numbers.

Mrs. Sheehan, despite giving birth to a noble son does not deserve any honor or attention whatever for what she is doing to her son’s memory, to her son’s decision to serve his country, or to the nation he voluntarily chose to defend. What she is doing, unwittingly or not, is seeking to disgrace his country, to dishonor his comrades, to dishonor his Commander and Chief , and strengthen his killers resolve to fight so more American mothers sons can grieve. Aside from a rooting pocket of radicals, her refocused energy after her son’s death is poised to cost Mrs. Sheehan her family and her husband. I do hope that her liberal handlers treat her well because one day the cameras will stop coming around and Ms. Sheehan will no longer have a voice her handlers want to hear and this mother will find herself very alone and, if there’s any justice, overwhelmed with the guilt of her betrayal.

Accidental Shooting?

Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing commissioner of the Italian Red Cross, said the deal to free the two Italian women, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, was kept secret from U.S. officials."The mediators asked us to treat and save the lives of four presumed terrorists sought by the Americans, wounded in combat. We hid them and brought them to the doctors with the Red Cross, who operated on them," Scelli was quoted as saying in La Stampa newspaper."We also treated four of their children, sick with leukaemia."If confirmed, the deal would be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- who denied last September that Italy had bowed to ransom demands from the kidnappers to win the release of the two women.

Berlusconi's office did not immediately comment when contacted on Thursday by Reuters.Scelli, who was present at the Sept. 28 handover of the two aid workers, said he was deeply involved in the negotiations.He told La Stampa that the decision to hide details about the operation from U.S. officials was approved by Gianni Letta, Berlusconi's right-hand man."Nobody should know about it. Above all, the Americans should not know," he said."Keeping the Americans in the dark about our efforts to free the hostages was a non-negotiable condition to guarantee the safety of the hostages and ourselves."Scelli said that he had consulted at the time with Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who was shot dead in March this year by U.S. troops at a Baghdad checkpoint during a subsequent rescue operation for another Italian hostage.Italy and the United States issued differing reports on Calipari's killing, with the U.S. military pinning much of the blame on the Italians, partly for failing to communicate that a rescue operation was underway.

Italy: A sponsoring State of terrorism

On Thursday a top secret military mission was revealed by the outgoing commissioner of the Italian Red Cross, that it gave medical treatment to "four terrorists" to secure the release of two Italian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq. The head of the parliamentary committee which oversees Italy's security services has announced that it will investigate the events which led to the release of Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, interviewing all involved.
The news broke out when Red Cross commissioner Maurizio Scelli told the Italian newspaper La Stampa, in an interview published on Thursday, that US officials were not told about the deal and the decision to keep it from them was approved by cabinet office undersecretary Gianni Letta, a close aide of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The prime minister's office responded to the claim, issuing a statement stressing that the Red Cross operates independently of the government and firmly distancing itself from Scelli, saying: "The government and its apparatus have never conditioned or directed the actions of the commissioner."

Scelli himself also began to play down the government's involvement, telling Italy's La Repubblica newspaper on Friday: "We carried out this operation in total autonomy and neutrality. " But he reiterated: "I informed Letta and told him the solution we were offered. Letta told me to go ahead with great caution. The fact that we kept the Americans in the dark was my request, and to this day, I honestly don't know if the government then informed them or not."

He also expressed his bitterness at being abandoned by the government. "Obviously the heroes are always those who die. Those who stay alive, however, insult you without even a word of thanks. I put my life at risk in those days as well," he told La Repubblica.

Relations between the two allies in the 'war on terror' soured at the beginning of March, when Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was shot dead by US troops who opened fire on the car he was traveling in with newly-released hostage Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist kidnapped a month earlier. Sgrena was also injured in the incident.

Aliens fighting back

A rock allegedly thrown by an illegal immigrant forced a Border Patrol helicopter to make an emergency landing after a rotor was damaged. The A-Star helicopter was two miles west of the U.S. Port of Entry in Andrade, Calif., when a group of immigrants began throwing rocks at the aircraft. One baseball-sized rock struck a rotor and gashed it, forcing the pilot to land the helicopter nearby, said Border Patrol spokesman Michael Gramley.

Neither the Customs and Border Protection pilot nor the Border Patrol observer were injured.
Gramley said he did not know how high the helicopter was hovering when it was struck, but it was being repaired and was expected to be back in service soon. The incident was a first for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector, which covers the section of Arizona between the Pima County line and California. A group of 17 illegal immigrants was apprehended.

9 billion a year: Down the toilet

Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes has introduced a bill that would create a new Border Patrol in California, arguing that we must get rid of illegal immigrants because they “flagrantly take advantage� of taxpayers. The bill, ACA 20, was evaluated and brought to a vote on July 5 in the State Assembly Judicial Committee where it was rejected. Now Haynes, together with a group of volunteers, is launching a signature collection campaign to put the measure on the 2006 ballot.

The signature campaign, which began on July 25, will be conducted by a company hired by the Border Patrol Committee of California. According to committee spokesperson Cristina Rivera, in order to make it onto ballot, a minimum of 598,106 signatures must be collected in the next 150 days.

In a phone interview with El Mensajero, Rivera said they hope to collect 900,000 signatures. “Californians, many of them in San Diego, are tired of illegal immigration and want something to be done because the federal government is not solving the problem.�
The California Border Patrol, according to Rivera, would be composed of approximately 2,000 agents and would cost between 200 and 400 million dollars.

“Californians are prepared to pay for this measure,� she said, “because illegals are costing us nine billion dollars a year that we spend on their medical care, education and keeping them in jail when they commit a crime.�

When asked if she thought the bill could jeopardize the rights of immigrant workers, Rivera responded, “No, because those who come here illegally and take advantage of our system don’t have rights.�

George Andrews, executive director of the California Border Police Committee, said in an interview that although they expect some opposition, the proposal to create a California Border Patrol is very popular and “relies on the support of recognized politicians, journalists and many groups of people throughout California.�

New Mexico's State of Emergency

This week the mainstream news media breathlessly announced a New Mexico state of emergency had been declared by Governor Bill Richardson -- who is planning a presidential run as another... ahem...moderate. Gov. Richardson, observing the chaos created by unbridled illegal immigration in his state, used the situation to criticize the President. But once one analyzes his strategy during this "state of emergency" one can only believe Gov. Richardson is full of baloney.

Unfortunately, even some conservatives are being duped by this former Clintonista's phony state of emergency. Bill O'Reilly heaped undeserved praise upon Richardson as did Sean Hannity. In addition, some in the blogosphere are all abuzz over a Democrat appearing to move to the right of the Republicans on the issue of illegal immigration.

Let's look at Richardson's actions to thwart the onslaught of the border invasion in Arizona:

In order to back local law enforcement, Gov. Richardson sent 56 -- YES 56 -- National Guard troops to the Mexican border. Even that number is deceiving. In order to cover one post with one man (or woman) for 24 hours a day, seven days a week requires 4.5 soldiers. So the BIG 56 soldier beef-up translates into about 12 soldiers covering about 180 miles of border at any one time, if you believe that distance is the problem area as stated by Gov. Richardson. I've seen governors deploy more National Guard troops for snowstorms than Gov. Richardson deployed in his phony "state of emergency."

In the past, Gov. Richardson signed legislation allowing illegal aliens: 1) access to a college tuition lottery that was supposed to help poor citizens pay for college; 2) access to New Mexico driver licenses; 3) access to free healthcare in hospitals. He's also a proponent of amnesty and guest-worker programs that actually reward law breakers. He continues to defend his actions in providing these illegal-immigration incentives.

The man is a crafty politician and, like his pal Hillary Clinton, he talks out of both sides of his mouth. If the reader will recall, in a previous story I compared Madam Hillary's tough talk about illegal immigration with her voting against tougher border security measures. Richardson's whole strategy is about getting positive press from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and bloggers, while at the same time continuing the DNC's anti-Bush rhetoric. He is using Bill Clinton's strategy of triangulation, a strategy created by the unscrupulous political consultant Dick Morris. Simply, triangulation is taking your opponent's issues and making them your own, except they become more of an illusion than a substantial policy.

I'm taking a "wait-and-see" posture on Gov, Richardson's "state of emergency" before heaping praise upon him. We all know -- or should know -- Democrats always talk a good war.

If the federal govt. won't do it, locals will

The Open Borders Bloc successfully mobilized this summer to put down an unexpected outbreak of the rule of law. The rebellion was brief but threatening, as local law enforcement clearly overstepped their bounds and began enforcing laws willy-nilly--leading many in the ruling elite to wonder where it all might end. Luckily, a judge was able to step in and stop the law before it could be enforced again.

In a case well publicized by the national media, Chief Garret Chamberlain, a police officer in the town of New Ipswich, N.H., encountered Mexican citizen Jorge Mora Ramirez broken down on the side of the road. Ramirez, though unable to speak much English, admitted that he was in the country illegally, was in possession of forged Massachusetts identification bearing a fictitious Social Security number, and was illegally employed in a construction project in a nearby town.

In a move that the media is still grasping to understand, Chamberlain then called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Division of the Department of Homeland Security (formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service or INS), with the idea that they might want to, say, apprehend and deport the unknown foreign national in possession of forged government documents and investigate the matter as a violation of so-called “law.�

Immigration and Customs Enforcement quickly informed Chamberlain, however, that they were not much interested in enforcing immigration or customs laws, and he should release Ramirez before tragedy occurred and some hapless piece of drywall was not affixed at a below-market rate. Investigating the admitted client of an international human smuggling and document forgery network is not really the sort of thing that the Department of Homeland Security can afford to waste resources on, it seems.

This was not the first time such an incident had occurred. The previous July, Chamberlain had stopped a van loaded with nine criminal aliens from Ecuador. Upon calling Immigration and Customs “Enforcement,� Chamberlain was told that the nine men, who had entered the country illegally and were employed by a roofing company illegally, hadn’t done anything “criminal� and should therefore be let go.

So Chamberlain gave up on the corrupt federal immigration system and charged Ramirez with being in New Ipswich illegally--under New Hampshire’s trespass law, which states, ''A person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place."

Chamberlain explained, ''My position was: If Mr. Ramirez was in the country illegally, he was obviously in the town of New Ipswich illegally.�

The logic is incontrovertible.

Unless you are a proponent of unlimited, unscreened, unfettered foreign entry into America, and all such were simply shocked that Chamberlain had failed to play the game properly. In America, there are two sets of laws: those that are passed by Congress to placate the election-year will of the people, and those that the ruling elite actually wants enforced. And leaders in both parties have no intention of enforcing immigration law. These laws exist only to quiet the whining masses. Enforcing such laws is exactly the sort of thing a law enforcement officer should know better than to do. I mean, what’s next? Actual democracy?

Worse yet, this law “enforcement� fad threatened to catch on, as other police departments--frustrated by the federal government’s willful inaction and flagrant failure to enforce immigration law--expressed interest in using the trespass law to protect their towns from the financial and criminal burdens imposed by illegal aliens. In the nearby town of Hudson, N.H., Police Chief Richard Gendron bravely backed up Chamberlain by charging several criminal aliens found in his town with trespassing.

Immigration and Customs “Enforcement� was outraged. Paula Grenier, an ICE spokeswoman, commented, “For a police chief to grandstand about illegal immigration, and [give] the perception that the federal government is doing nothing, is wrong.� Of course it is. ICE told the chief to let the illegal aliens go, and that is doing something, isn’t it?

The Mexican government was so concerned that its biggest moneymaker (illegal labor pimping) might be harmed that they paid for legal counsel and sent their counsel-general to view the hearings.

The mainstream media and numerous other liberal advocacy groups were aghast and reacted predictably. Last week, the judge hearing the cases issued his decision.

Immigration law, he ruled, is solely the federal government’s to neglect, and claims that the act of illegal entry into the US might be violations of any local laws would be “unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations, an area where Congress must be deemed to have regulated with such civil sanctions and criminal penalties as it feels are sufficient.�
In other words, if an unelected bureaucrat at ICE decides that it is OK for an unidentified foreign national to be in the United States illegally, it is OK for him to be in New Ipswich illegally. The law be damned.

This is a curious decision when one considers that in almost every other area of law known, the statutes of federal, state and local governments often overlap. Yet no one claims that local gun-control or minimum-wage ordinances violate the will of Congress on these issues, or that federal civil rights and terrorism laws are unconstitutional infringements on state laws against murder and assault. It is a well-established legal precedent in this nation that a single act may cause one to be in violation of multiple laws--and thus subject to prosecution by more than one layer of government. Just ask Elliot Spitzer.

Also, contrast the quick reaction to local enforcement of immigration law with the phenomenon of “sanctuary cities�--cities that have prohibited their police from assisting the federal government in finding illegal aliens. Clearly, such prohibitions constitute “unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations,� yet they continue unimpeded and without pressure from the media and ICE, even years after court rulings against them.
Apparently, one may help the federal government subvert immigration law all one wants, but don’t dare try to help it actually enforce things.

So what are the abandoned local and state governments (who bear the brunt of illegal immigration costs) to do, if they may not charge illegal stowaways with trespass?

Charge them with something else.

Local governments can require contractors and laborers to register and show real identification (which coincidentally now requires proof of legal residency). Violation of such a law would be a wholly local matter. Local governments regulate restaurant zoning, and issue building permits. They can disperse loiterers and deny builders their inspection approvals. Local governments have a lot of power to regulate local activity.

Whatever local governments do, they must not surrender. Because when you fight back, sometimes you win even when you lose. Consider the parting words of Ramirez’s attorney regarding the future plans of his illegal alien clients: "I think they plan on staying out of Hudson and New Ipswich, N.H."

The actions of one cop in one town got the attention of the U.S. government, the Mexican government, the national media and the open-borders zealots. The town forced the issue on behalf of the clear majority of the American people and in the process made itself safer and finally respected among the criminal alien population, most of whom will now avoid the place altogether. There are tens of thousands of towns and cities in America, were even 1% to follow the lead of New Ipswich and Hudson, it would change everything --and restore the rule of law.

The Myth of Creationism

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of creation myths among the peoples of the world. Many Christians object to having their beliefs called myths, but a myth is simply a story which is (or has been) considered true and sacred by a group of people. Other cultures believe their creation myths for exactly the same sorts of reasons that Christians believe theirs. Flat Earthers believe that the earth is flat and is covered by a solid dome or firmament. Waters above the firmament were the source of Noah's flood. This belief is based on a literal reading of the Bible, such as references to the "four corners of the earth" and the "circle of the earth." Few people hold this extreme view, but some do. Geocentrists accept a spherical earth but deny that the sun is the center of the solar system or that the earth moves. As with flat-earth views, the water of Noah's flood came from above a solid firmament. The basis for their belief is a literal reading of the Bible. It is not an interpretation at all, it is what the words say.

Young Earth Creationists claim a literal interpretation of the Bible as a basis for their beliefs. They believe that the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, that all life was created in six literal days, that death and decay came as a result of Adam & Eve's Fall, and that geology must be interpreted in terms of Noah's Flood. However, they accept a spherical earth and heliocentric solar system. Young-Earth Creationists popularized the modern movement of scientific creationism by taking the ideas of George McCready Price, a Seventh Day Adventist, and publishing them in The Genesis Flood. Old-Earth Creationists accept the evidence for an ancient earth but still believe that life was specially created by God, and they still base their beliefs on the Bible. There are a few different ways of accommodating their religion with science.

Intelligent Design Creationism descended from Paley's argument that God's design could be seen in life. Modern IDC still makes appeals to the complexity of life and so varies little from the substance of Paley's argument, but the arguments have become far more technical, delving into microbiology and mathematical logic. In large part, Intelligent Design Creationism is used today as an umbrella anti-evolution position under which creationists of all flavors may unite in an attack on scientific methodology in general (CRSC, 1999). A common tenet of IDC is that all beliefs about evolution equate to philosophical materialism.

Evolutionary Creationism differs from Theistic Evolution only in its theology, not in its science. It says that God operates not in the gaps, but that nature has no existence independent of His will. It allows interpretations consistent with both a literal Genesis and objective science, allowing, for example, that the events of creation occurred, but not in time as we know it, and that Adam was not the first biological human but the first spiritually aware one. Theistic Evolution says that God creates through evolution. Theistic Evolutionists vary in beliefs about how much God intervenes in the process. It accepts most or all of modern science, but it invokes God for some things outside the realm of science, such as the creation of the human soul. This position is promoted by the Pope and taught at mainline Protestant seminaries.

U.S. courts don't care about Americans!!!

A federal court judge on Wednesday extended for the fifth time an order barring a former investigator for the U.N. oil-for-food probe from turning over documents to U.S. congressional committees. The delay, until July 13, was granted by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington. All parties have asked for repeated delays while they try to work out an agreement.

The restraining order, first issued on May 9, blocks Robert Parton, a former FBI agent, from handing over boxes of documents to two congressional committees that subpoenaed them after he resigned from the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee. Parton left the probe, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, believing the inquiry ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose son worked for a company that received a lucrative contract in Iraq under the $67 billion program.

Parton took thousands of files with him, which the Volcker inquiry says violated a confidentiality agreement, could put witnesses at risk and jeopardize its investigation. The documents were given in response to a subpoena to the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, headed by Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde. Another House committee and one in the Senate then filed their own subpoenas. In its suit against Parton, the United Nations does not ask for the documents in the possession of Hyde's panel, but tries to prevent them from being distributed to other committees. Annan appointed the Volcker probe last year to investigate fraud in the oil-for-food program, which began in 1996. Under the deal, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government could sell oil to buy goods to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis. The sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Parton said he kept the documents to back up his allegations that the investigation was flawed. The Volcker panel says the documents belong to its inquiry and it needs to have jurisdiction over their distribution and to protect witnesses.

NASA guilty of cover-up

Boffins who discovered that there was a 10th planet in our solar system, had been sitting on the news for years until a hacker turned over their servers. The new planet, known as 2003UB313, has been identified as the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun, California Institute of Technology astronomer Michael Brown said. But according to the South African Sunday Telegraph, the briefing was hastily arranged after Brown received word that his secure website containing the crucial data had been found by a curious web-surfer. The unnamed hacker was threatening to release the information, if the scientists did not want to.

It transpired that Brown and his friends had been sitting on the information since 2003 when they snapped it with a 122cm telescope at the Palomar Observatory. However they couldn’t confirm much about it until it was analyzed again last January. So in the time honored tradition of Boffins everywhere they decided to keep the data from the common people until they knew a bit more. Brown said that data is still being processed and it will take at least six months before astronomers can determine the planet’s exact size. The planet seems to be about 1.5 times the size of Pluto, which is usually dubbed a planetoid because it is so small.

The new planet has been identified as the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun, California Institute of Technology astronomer Michael Brown said. Brown and colleagues Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz have submitted a name for the planet to the International Astronomical Union and are confident it will be designated a planet. Brown did not reveal the proposed name, but leaks have been stating the proposed name is ‘Zena’.

The planet is located about 9.7 billion miles from the sun and is about 1 1/2 times the size of Pluto, the researchers said. The new planet orbits the sun once every 560 years and is now at its farthest point from Earth, he said. In about 280 years, the planet will be as close as Neptune, he said. Like Pluto, the object's surface is believed to be predominantly methane, but its size -- about 1,700 miles in diameter -- qualifies it as a planet, Brown said. Earth is about 7,900 miles in diameter. The new planet is believed to be part of the Kuiper Belt, a large ring of icy objects that orbit beyond Neptune and are believed to be remnants of the material that formed the solar system.

The Caltech team, funded in part by NASA, had been waiting to announce the find until they had completed their studies, but changed their minds after a hacker threatened to go public with their data, Brown said. Their finding comes a day after a Spanish team of astronomers announced the discovery of another relatively large object orbiting in the solar system's outer reaches. That object, Brown said, was about three-quarters the size of Pluto. The new planet went undiscovered for so long because its orbit is tilted at a 45-degree angle to the orbital plane of the other planets, and travels in an elliptical orbit, Brown said.

The new planet is so far away that an observer standing on its surface could cover the view of the sun with the head of a pin, Brown said. It was sufficiently bright, however, for amateur astronomers to track it in the early morning sky, he said.

Fox's fake independent council

Fox TV has set up an independent council to examine allegations by Corey Clark that Abdul trained him while the pair was conducting a secret affair. However, Fox's Peter Liguori said Abdul was expected to return as a judge for the fifth series of the hit show.
Singer Abdul denies the claims and has called Clark "an admitted liar".

Clark, 25, was ejected from the second series of American Idol, in 2003, for concealing a prior arrest. He went public with his allegations about Abdul, 43, on ABC's Primetime Live in May this year. Corey Clark, left, made the allegations on ABC's Primetime Live
Mr. Liguori said investigations into improper conduct on the hit talent contest began soon after, but might not be completed before production began on the next series.

"At this point, we have nothing that specifically says she shouldn't be showing up for work," said Mr. Liguori, referring to Abdul's role as a judge on the fourth series.

"The audience loves Paula." However, he acknowledged that the independent council was led by a lawyer hired by Fox and the producers of American Idol. "It's as independent as one can make it," he said "The sanctity of the competition is first and foremost. The line is whether or not it affects the outcome of the competition."

Auditions for the new series of American Idol begin on 18 August, with the series due to air in January 2006. Abdul recently joined Fox's latest reality show So You Think You Can Dance, traveling the US giving dancing tips to the general public.

A terrorist's best option to kill

Despite the downside of massive sustained illegal immigration, the government has systematically abandoned the enforcement of the nation's immigration laws. This began under President Clinton when he stopped enforcing employer sanctions, penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and by reducing border management to nothing more than an expensive, dishonest, and demoralizing display of empty ritual.

The Clinton administration did not act alone. Some members of the very Congress that passed the laws in the first place pressured enforcement agencies not to enforce the law at the behest of business interests that profit from an unchecked flow of tractable labor. The Bush administration completed the process by ending what remained of interior enforcement and by continuing the charade of border controls.

The Livermore Sector of the Border Patrol in the San Francisco Bay Area was, according to one former senior Border Patrol official, "man for man the most productive in the country." It was shut down in 2004.

The 9/11 Commission recommended an increase in the manpower of the Border Patrol, and in 2005, following those recommendations Congress authorized the hiring of 2,000 more Border Patrol agents. But the president's budget allocated only enough money for 210 agents, not even enough to cover attrition. When asked about the paltry sum, outgoing Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said that money for such purposes is "fool's gold."

Since June 2004 the Border Patrol has been restricted to the border itself and to stationary points, thus ending one of its traditional missions -- sweeping interior regions for illegal aliens. One frustrated agent says this unprecedented policy is the equivalent of putting a ten-yard limit on bank robbery: if the robber gets beyond that point he can keep the money.

Joe Dessaro, a recently retired Border Patrol agent and union chief, wrote in his farewell letter to the union that the Border Patrol is "one of the most inefficient and misleading agencies in the history of government." Echoing this sentiment another agent hundreds of miles away observes that "the whole thing is the biggest bunco job in history, spending millions not to do the job."
None of this is lost on those who would cross the border illegally. They know that once across the line they are home free, and that if caught at the border they will be returned to try again until they make it. One agent says he caught the same man three times in one shift at the same place on the fence. Border crossers also know the routine. When they are picked up and put in vans, some ask, "Where are my juice and crackers?"

Is the creator of BitTorrent being leeched dry?

BitTorrent programmer Bram Cohen may be in legal jeopardy after the discovery on Wednesday of an old agenda buried on his website saying he creates programs to "commit digital piracy." The polemic would have been of little interest a week ago. But on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the intent behind a file-sharing program can be a decisive factor in determining whether the creator can be sued for its users' copyright infringement.
Cohen said the agenda was written years before he started work on BitTorrent, and that it was written as a parody of other manifestos. "I wrote that in 1999, and I didn't even start working on BitTorrent until 2001," Cohen said. "I find it really unpleasant that I even have to worry about it." Undated and less than 200 words long, Cohen's "Technological Activist's Agenda" says he creates and gives away software in furtherance of laissez-faire political objectives. "I further my goals with technology," the manifesto reads. "I build systems to disseminate information, commit digital piracy, synthesize drugs, maintain untrusted contacts, purchase anonymously and secure machines and homes."

In a unanimous ruling penned by Justice David Souter, the Court found that file-sharing software companies Grokster and StreamCast Networks can be sued because "the record is replete with evidence" showing the companies took steps to encourage infringement. The case has been returned to the lower courts for trial. Cohen has never publicly encouraged piracy, and he has consistently maintained that he wrote BitTorrent as a legitimate file-distribution tool. That would seem to make him and his budding company, BitTorrent, safe under the Grokster ruling.

But legal experts worry the newly discovered manifesto extolling "digital piracy" could put him on less certain legal ground. "Before I saw the manifesto, it always seemed clear to me that he's had a very clean record," said Mark Schultz, a law professor at Southern Illinois University Law School. "A good lawyer will try to nail him to the wall with that, and any other statements they can find. It's circumstantial evidence of intent. It's not a slam dunk but it hurts his case a little." Cohen said although he contributed to an earlier peer-to-peer tool, MojoNation, the text wasn't alluding to that system either.

Cohen said he's unhappy that the Supreme Court's decision is forcing him to confront something he wrote more than five years ago. "The way they talked about intent is so vague that it can cause people to pay attention to things that they wrote years and years ago, having nothing to do with what they're doing right now," Cohen said.

"Anybody who thinks that they might produce technology at some point in the future that might be used for piracy has to watch everything that they say," he added. Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented StreamCast Networks in the recent case, said Cohen has a good point. "I don't think it's anything that Bram needs to worry about but the Supreme Court seems to think that everything is relevant to the discussion," he said. "It raises the question of (whether) anything you've ever said can be used as evidence against you later." But von Lohmann said if the Motion Picture Association of America wanted to go after Cohen, it would have done it a long time ago.



Bram Cohen
1166 Pine #11
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-775-6963
bram@bitconjurer.org

Invasion of OTMs - Other Then Mexican

After decades of attempting to dam the flow of Mexican immigrants crossing into the United States illegally, federal agents say a new crisis is emerging along the southern border and they are helpless to stop it. Non-Mexicans are spilling over the border in record numbers - some from countries with terrorist ties - and most are set free soon after being captured. Already this year, the number of non-Mexican apprehensions has far outpaced last year's total in just eight months. And while they are still a relatively small percentage compared with the number of illegal Mexicans, critics say the federal government's policy in dealing with them is far more dangerous.

Because OTMs, or "Other Than Mexicans" as the Border Patrol classifies them, must be returned to their country of origin, they cannot be simply sent back across the southern border, as most Mexicans are. Under US law, they must be detained (in the US) pending a deportation hearing. The problem is, immigration detention centers are packed, so most OTMs are given a court summons and told to return in three months. A full 85 percent don't. According to the Border Patrol, some 465,000 OTMs have taken advantage of this "catch and release" policy to settle here in the US.

"It's an insane policy which encourages OTMs to come into the country illegally, and we shouldn't be shocked that they are coming in record numbers," says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 9,000 agents. In fact, he says, after crossing the border, many OTMs simply flag down agents or walk up to them and surrender, knowing they will be released.

"The word is out," says Mr. Bonner. "They know that as soon as they are caught, they will be free to roam at will." In a hearing in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security earlier this month, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar reported that his agency has apprehended 919,000 illegal immigrants so far this year - 119,000 of whom were OTMs.

That puts the agency on pace to hit 150,000 such apprehensions by the end of the fiscal year, almost triple last year's high-water mark of 65,000 OTM apprehensions. In fiscal 2003, the numbers were around 40,000, and in 2002 and 2001, around 30,000 each.

"We should be greatly concerned because OTMs do not register, their travel documents are suspect, and they have no biometric records that can be checked to verify identity," remarked the appropriations subcommittee's chairman, Harold Rogers (R) of Kentucky.

Most are from Brazil and Central America, but Mr. Aguilar reported that last year 644 came from "countries of concern." What's most disturbing, say immigration experts, is that the increase in OTM apprehensions comes on the heels of the US war on terror.

"We are not protecting Americans against the next terrorist attack," says Michael Cutler, a former special agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. "There are so many holes in the system."

He points to the OTM loophole as one example. Another is the Visa Waiver Program, which allows residents from 28 countries, including Canada, to enter the US without getting a visa in their home country. Mr. Cutler believes everyone entering the US, no matter what their country, should have to obtain a visa that documents personal information, the purpose of the visit, and contact information once they arrive. Shoe bomber Richard Reid, for instance, was born and raised in London and boarded a plane for the US with only a passport.

"We are all fixated on his shoes, and now passengers are required to take off their shoes, yet nobody wants to deal with the issue of how he was able to enter the country in the first place," says Cutler. Other critics say the guest-worker proposal, which is being touted as a way to know who is here, ultimately leaves the door open for document fraud and illegal entry.

In the end, says Cutler, "the number of OTMs coming in is a barometer of how effective we are at deterring illegal immigration." To help combat the increase in non-Mexican crossings, two US cities have been participating in a pilot initiative, known as the "expedited removal" program. Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas, and Tucson, Ariz., are able to make decisions without the help of immigration judges in deciding whether a person has a valid case to fight deportation. And agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector, where the majority of OTMs cross, are being trained in the program.

Still, even under the expedited process, agents are finding a familiar problem: There is nowhere to house the immigrants while they wait to be deported. Border-state politicians have been clamoring for years for more funding for detention centers, and some worry that if apprehended Mexicans began requesting immigration hearings instead of taking "voluntary departures," the problem would become even more dire.

Already, says former INS agent Bonner, the recent surge in OTM apprehensions is tying up precious time and manpower along the border. In some areas, like the Rio Grande Valley, some 75 percent of the sector's resources are devoted to dealing with the problem. Border Patrol agents, he says, know that most OTMs have no intention of returning for the court hearing - and that is incredibly frustrating for them.

"It's more than a little demoralizing," he says. "They feel like social workers. They are not enforcing the law; they are simply enabling people to break it - and that goes against the grain of any law enforcement officer."

CLEAR Act Introduced In U.S. House

The Clear Law Enforcement for criminal Alien Removal Act of 2005 – CLEAR - was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Georgia Congressman Charlie Norwood, Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth, Iowa Congressman Steve King, and 29 other House Members today in Washington. The introduction was announced in a Capitol Hill news conference by Norwood, Hayworth, King and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The Southern States Police Benevolent Association and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America also endorsed the bill through written statements.

Norwood referenced the ongoing search in Georgia for 24-year-old Cornelio Rivera Zamites, an illegal alien and convicted criminal, being sought for the Saturday kidnapping, molestation, and murder of a 4-year old Gainesville girl as prime evidence for the need to use all possible resources to combat the illegal immigration crisis. According to the Hall County Sheriff’s Department, Zamites had been previously deported for criminal offenses including illegal immigration, only to return illegally.

“It’s time to bring this insanity to an end,� said Norwood. The former dentist said America must secure its borders against illegal entries, and then begin actively “arresting and deporting criminals like Zamites who are in this country right now.�

Hayworth, representing the state with the worst border problems in the country, said, “We’re here today to give voice to the growing concern among Americans who understand that stopping the invasion of illegal immigrants into this country begins with enforcement, not amnesty; with enforcement, not a new coat of paint on a failed immigration policy; with unflinching enforcement, not surrender to the selfish interests of business, labor, and the politicians. The CLEAR bill is a common sense, crucial step toward the effective interior enforcement that will reverse the tide of illegal immigration."

FAIR President Dan Stein said, “The magnitude of the problem of illegal immigration demands a coherent and comprehensive law enforcement strategy,� said Stein. “The federal government cannot be everywhere, but with the assistance of local law enforcement agencies we can finally mount a meaningful immigration enforcement strategy in the interior of the country.�

Southern States PBA President Jack Roberts said in a written release, “Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. But when the federal government won’t do the job, and we’re left policing the mess, our agencies should at least be paid for the costs incurred, and given some sort of safety valve for keeping criminal illegal aliens off the streets after we apprehend them.� Roberts praised the bill’s protections against unfunded mandates on local law enforcement agencies, and said the legislation was “precisely the remedy local law enforcement has sought in dealing with America’s illegal immigration crisis.�

The CLEAR Act removes all legal questions on whether state and local law enforcement agencies should engage in immigration law enforcement, and encourages coordinated efforts and training with the Department of Homeland Security.

Key measures in the proposal include:

1. Expanded Transport Authority: Local law enforcement is authorized to transport illegal immigrants across state lines to the nearest federal detention center, at federal expense.

2. New Federal Detention Centers: 20 new federal detention centers, each capable of housing at minimum 500 detainees.

3. Immigration Enforcement Training: 100% federally funded training by the Department of Homeland Security, at the request of the local agency.

4. Tougher Penalties for Illegal Immigration: Illegal immigration raised from a civil to a criminal offense, punishable by expanded jail terms and fines.

5. Crackdown on “Sanctuary� Cities: Locales that refuse to cooperate with DHS on immigration law enforcement will no longer be able to claim SCAAP funding.

6. Protection of Immigrant Crime Victims and Witnesses: Local law enforcement agencies are not required to charge crime victims and witnesses for immigration violations.

The full text of the legislation will be available on the web at www.house.gov/norwood.

Just plain common sense

When our national security is on the line, "racial profiling" — or more precisely, threat profiling based on race, religion or nationality — is justified. Targeted intelligence-gathering at mosques and in local Muslim communities, for example, makes perfect sense when we are at war with Islamic extremists. Yet, last week, the FBI came under fire for questioning Muslims in Seattle about possible terrorist ties. Members of a local mosque complained to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who called for a congressional investigation of the FBI's innocuous tactics. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington accused the agency of "ethnic profiling."

But where else are federal agents supposed to turn for help in uncovering terrorist plots by Islamic fanatics: Buddhist temples? Knights of Columbus meetings? Amish neighborhoods?

Some might argue that profiling is so offensive to fundamental American values that it ought to be prohibited, even if the prohibition jeopardizes our safety. Yet many of the ethnic activists and civil-liberties groups who object most strenuously to the use of racial, ethnic, religious and nationality classifications during war support the use of similar classifications to ensure "diversity" or "parity" in peacetime. The civil-rights hypocrites have never met a "compelling government interest" for using racial, ethnicity or nationality classifications they didn't like, except when that compelling interest happens to be the nation's very survival.

In the wake of 9/11, opponents of profiling have shifted away from arguing against it because it is "racist" and now claim that it endangers security because it is a drain on resources and damages relations with ethnic and religious minorities, thereby hampering intelligence-gathering. These assertions are cleverly fine-tuned to appeal to post-9/11 sensibilities, but they are unfounded and disingenuous. The fact that al-Qaeda is using some non-Arab recruits does not render profiling moot. As long as we have open borders, Osama bin Laden will continue to send Middle East terrorists here by land, sea and air. Profiling is just one discretionary investigative tool among many.

Continuous non-enforcement

The Department of Homeland Security says it has no plans to enlist citizen volunteers in patrolling U.S. borders, rebuffing a proposal by its top border enforcement official. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner told The Associated Press on Wednesday his agency was considering the training of volunteers to create “something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary.�

But Homeland Security spokesman Brian J. Roehrkasse said Thursday that Bonner, whose agency is part of Homeland Security, had not provided “any specific details� of his proposal to agency officials.

“There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border,� Roehrkasse said. “That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials.�

Before a high-profile civilian campaign to fight illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border was launched in April, Bonner had urged citizens not to interfere with his agents’ work, saying “ordinary Americans� weren’t qualified for what can be a dangerous task. But the so-called “Minuteman Project� apparently had an effect on his thinking. He said this week his agency decided to look into involving citizens after seeing how eager volunteers were to stop illegal immigration.

“It is actually as a result of seeing that there is the possibility in local border communities, and maybe even beyond, of having citizens that would be willing to volunteer to help the Border Patrol,� Bonner said in an interview Wednesday while visiting the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

Bonner said the idea was still conceptual and that details such as whether citizens would be deputized to enforce federal immigration law hadn’t been worked out. A spokeswoman said a range of proposals were being considered, including having volunteers do clerical work so more agents could work in the field.

Chris Simcox, a co-organizer of the Minuteman Project, said he wasn’t surprised that Bonner’s proposal was rebuffed, nor was he disappointed.

His organization “does not need the federal government to put its rubber stamp on us,� Simcox said. “Why would we want a federal government who can’t manage the borders as it is to co-opt our movement?�

FAA Certifies Illegal Immigrants

Federal agents arrested 27 illegal immigrants at the Piedmont/Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. What were these guys doing when they were arrested? They were working on commercial jet airliners! These 27 men originally came from a variety of countries, including Sudan, Chile, Peru, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Venezuela, Mexico, and Laos. But they had one thing in common: they almost all possessed valid North Carolina driver’s licenses — as well as other documents including airplane-repair licenses, phony Social Security documents, counterfeit green cards, and even a falsified passport.

Were these illegal aliens really terrorists? Probably not; at least there’s no evidence of that so far. But the problem is, any one of them could have been. Remember, the 9-11 hijackers used state-issued driver’s licenses to board the planes.

“Practically everybody we arrest has a North Carolina driver’s license on them,� said Thomas O’Connell of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lots of people even come from other states, because under liberal Gov. Mike Easley, it’s really easy to get North Carolina licenses. “

What’s more, in the official AP wire story that did run, the lead paragraph was NOT about the national security threat of having illegal aliens working on jet airliners at an international airport inside the heartland of America. Rather, it was about how leaders of El Pueblo, a so-called “Hispanic advocacy group,� were going to Washington to protest the potential passage of the “Real ID Act� in Congress next month.

“If something like Real ID passed, it would be devastating for many in our community,� said Andrea Bazan Manson, director of the Raleigh-based group that organized the lobbying effort to protest tougher regulations against giving licenses to illegals. These Hispanic activists believe the proposed law “unfairly targets hardworking immigrants and could result in public safety problems,� according to AP.

These intruders have some good attributes, like hard work, but they are still here in America illegally. That very fact constitutes a threat, not to mention an economic liability, for our country. Giving illegal aliens government-issued IDs is simply wrong. They are breaking our laws and we are rewarding them for doing so. The “face� of illegal immigration is definitely changing. The stereotype of all illegal immigrants being manual laborers is clearly false. The incident at PTI Airport illustrates that fact. The FAA has to train and certify these aircraft technicians. Proper security and screening never should have let this incident happen.

That is the first part of the story. The second might even be worse. We have CEOs of big companies who have an affair with their secretaries, and that makes national front page news. Yet, when illegal aliens with false documents are found to be secretly working on jet airplanes, that story passes under the radar screen without even a blip. Are we trying to revisit September 11th?

Bush Nuclear Deal may be criminal offense

President George W. Bush signed an agreement Monday with the Prime Minister of India to help the nuclear armed country develop its civilian nuclear power capability. But a measure passed by members of the House of Representatives Tuesday disapproves that arrangement for India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

During their meeting at the White House on Monday, President Bush told India's Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, that as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, India should acquire the same benefits and advantages as other such states. The two leaders signed a joint statement to lift a ban on sale of U.S. civilian nuclear technology to India. Recognizing India's continued unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, President Bush expressed his appreciation to the Prime Minister over India's "strong commitment" to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and said he will "work to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India" as it realizes its goals of promoting nuclear power and achieving energy security."

Under the agreement, India would be allowed to buy nuclear fuel and reactor components from the United States and other countries. In exchange India would allow international inspections and safeguards on its civilian nuclear program, but not its nuclear-weapons arsenal, and not detonate any more weapons tests.

U.S. law bans export of technology that could support a nuclear program of any country that has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and India has not signed it.

On Tuesday, the same day that Prime Minister Singh addressed a joint session of the House and Senate, a bipartisan energy panel of the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a measure forbidding export of nuclear technology to India and other countries not party to the nonproliferation treaty and which have detonated a nuclear device. House Members have vowed to continue press for action to address their concerns over the exportation of nuclear materials to non-nuclear states.

President Bush told the Indian leader that he will seek agreement from Congress to adjust U.S. laws and policies to allow the export of nuclear technology to India. In addition, Bush promised, the United States will work with friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India, including but not limited to expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur.

Al-Jazeera set to publish terrorism guide

Not that our government should need any further incentive to secure our borders and ports during war time, but the voice of the Islamic jihadist crusade against the west, the Arab TV news network, Al-Jazeera, announced recently its intention to document the porous condition of the US/Mexican border. The Arab network sought interviews with Chris Simcox, leader of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp, but received a flat rejection of the offer. Mr. Simcox said, “I’ll have no part in aiding and abetting the enemy, and will continue to work to protect our country from terrorists who are clearly looking at our unsecured borders as the pathway to destroy America.�

In absence of any response whatsoever from the US State Department or Department of Defense or Homeland Security, the Minutemen once again had to fill in the gap in our national insecurity apparatus by identifying Al-Jazeera for what it is, “the world’s most prolific terrorism television network� and vowing to resist any filming of their activities along the border. At least one Congressman, Trent Franks (R-Arizona) agrees saying, “It is insane policy to allow al-Jazeera to film Arizona’s unsecured border with Mexico and then broadcast it to the very people who perpetrated 9/11.� Apparently, even this small opposition was enough to cause Al-Jazeera to cancel the launching their study during the 4th of July weekend out of concerns for the safety of their staff although they have not decided to abandon the project.

Al-Jazeera’s motives could indeed be sinister. Their reporting to the entire jihadist world how easy it is to infiltrate the “Great Satan� through its southern border is an open invitation and a go ahead signal to attempt it. The information from Iraq is that most of the suicide attacks against civilians and coalition forces are being committed by foreign fighters crossing the border from Syria to carry out their death-dealing missions. At the present time, there is enormous reporting by Al-Jazeera about the lax security along the US southern border.


To all interested parties: A guide to destroy America

The risks and complications of invading the United States of America are extremely low. In fact, why sweat it out in Iraq and Afghanistan risking certain annihilation by Iraq security forces and the most power military in the world, when there are so many infinite “soft� targets in the heart of the beast. With American forces spread all around the world guarding the borders of so many other ungrateful countries, there is no one left at home to guard their own borders except for older retirees and grandmothers.

There are plenty of guides available (coyotes) to assist you and even the Mexican government has put out a “tour guide� for any inexperienced terrorist to follow in their trek into the US. And if you “mule� in some drugs on your journey for the ex-Mexican special forces turned drug peddling Zetas, they will make your trip worth your while financially. Don’t worry about connections. The drug cartels have networks to numerous major city operations.

Crossing is no problem as there are so few U.S. Border patrol agents to cover the wide expanses of desert and the automatic surveillance equipment is so faulty and inadequate that there is little chance of detection. Furthermore, humanitarian groups have set up rest stations and water reservoirs along the way in case your supplies run a little short. The only worry you have might be detection by those pesky Minutemen volunteers. However, that risk is negated by the helpful tactics of the ACLU and other anti-Minutemen groups who plan to harass the Minutemen and make noises and flash headlights so that trespassers are warned away from the observation posts. Anyway, if you are detected, they still have to rely on the Border Patrol to arrest you. You could be miles away before the agents arrive and besides their superiors have ordered them to “stand down� on making any arrests in areas where the Minuteman are active.

Once inside the country, be sure to head for many of the sanctuary communities where police officers and local officials refuse to detain any illegal aliens despite appeals from the Homeland Security federal office. You need not worry about the locals either. They are either so gullible as to believe their government is protecting them, or are so obsessed with their own personal lives, or are so cowardly as to hide from reality, or are so intimidated by the political correctness dogma of the day, or are so neutered by their own respect for law and order and proper authority that they shy away from taking any action on their own. Just watch out for Army Guard Reservists or National Guardsmen back home from Iraq or Afghanistan on leave. They might just try something as foolish as a citizen’s arrest of an alien invader.

If you are arrested, you need not be overly concerned. In all probability you will be released due to lack of jail space or time and resources to pursue your individual case. The legal requirement of handling OTM’s (other than Mexican) by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “catch and release.� Most likely, they will give you a citation to appear in court at a later date, but of course you will could be half way across the country and have blown up two schools and a hospital by then.

And if by some fluke, you are actually detained, you need not worry. The ACLU will take good care of you. If possible, alert the liberal media of your plight. Since you can’t blow up any buildings, fly crop dusters over population centers, or cut off any heads where you are at, you can at least broadcast your anti-west, anti-Christian and anti-Jew propaganda over the US media industry. Amnesty International and the American Red Cross are big suckers for this. You might even score big and get some liberal Democrat puppet suffering from political power withdrawal symptoms who despises his own country and the soldiers who protect him and who is the most easily frightened into surrender to complain in the halls of Congress about how you are being so misunderstood

Don’t forget to bring your Koran so it can be disrespected. If all else fails, don’t fret because the US Supreme Court has your interests in mind. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? You might even get sent to Gitmo, where you will receive three squares, a comfortable bed, an air-conditioned room, musical entertainment, female companionship in the form of lawyers and interrogators, and structured religious activities just in case you have been a bit undisciplined lately. All things considered, the only down side from crossing the border is that you might gain an extra fifteen pounds while waiting for the US to implode or explode which ever happens first.

From: A Liberal Dose - Just more BULLSHIT

Why Does John G. Roberts Hate Our Soldiers?

What do we know about Bush's shiny new Supreme Court nominee? We know he's Bush's top pick to replace the swing votes of Sandra Day O'Connor, who proved to be a wild card over her tenure. Aside from that, apparently not much. We do know he was a previously unsuccessful elder Bush nominee and has only been a judge for the two years since Junior appointed him. Aside from subordinate positions in the White House for five years, Roberts clerked for William H. Rehnquist in 1980 and was tobacco money pit bull Kenneth Starr's principal deputy from 1989 to 1993, helping formulate White House Supreme Court strategy.

Is Vice President Dick Cheney under investigation?

The reports that Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was the second possible source in the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent to Time magazine elevates the scandal to a whole new level. It is bad enough for Karl Rove to be accused of being a leaker, since he is President Bush’s chief political strategist. But if Time’s story holds, I. Lewis Libby’s involvement represents an even more insidious abuse of power. The Bush administration is being accused by democrats of leaking the name of Valerie Plame in retribution for a New York Times op-ed article written by her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson.

So much smoke is being blown over White House v. Wilson/Plame that it is becoming almost impossible to see the forest for the trees. Bewildered houseguests from outside the Beltway throw up their hands: "It's all just politics...and character assassination." And that may well be precisely the impression the media wish to leave with us.

Rumors are spinning that Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who is handling the investigation, most likely has enough information to indict Rove on already, as well as Cheney's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, and even Joe Wilson, but will likely wait until all the investigation is rounded up before letting us all in on what he's going to charge anybody with. But who really knows? As the media wrestles over the ins-and-outs of Bush's latest Supreme Court pick, the real wrangling that is going on will not be on the front pages of The Washington Post, as Fitzgerald has kept a rather tight seal on his investigation.

Massive boycott of 'United Americas Bank' out of control

The American Resistance Foundation and concerned American citizens will rally in front of the United Americas Bank, 3789 Roswell Rd, Atlanta, at 10:00 AM Saturday, 23 July 2005. The rally is part of an ongoing effort to draw public attention to the bank’s practice of making mortgage loans and opening accounts for thousands of people residing in the U.S. illegally. According to bank officials, United Americas Bank accepts as valid ID the unsecure and easily forged Mexican issued Matricula Consular ID, and, in violation of IRS guidelines, the IRS issued Individual Tax Identification Number.

Georgia State Senator - and national board member of MALDEF - Sam Zamarripa is a founding partner and Director of UAB.

“Because of its ease of forgery, the Mexican Matricula Consular ID is not accepted in most banks in Mexico� observed D.A. King, founder of T.A.R. “Opening accounts for illegal aliens, handling funds received as payment for illegal labor - and making mortgage loans to illegal aliens amounts to money laundering by those who profit from this activity�. “It is a violation of USC 8, section 1324 to encourage an illegal alien to remain in the United States� said King.
The American Resistance Foundation opposes illegal immigration and those who profiteer from that crime, as well as any amnesty proposal for illegal aliens.

Is the European Union (EU) crumbling before us?

Over the past few weeks, Europe has not dominated the headlines even though there is widespread feeling that the EU is now at a crossroads. The public debate, however, seems at times to confuse several separate issues – the proposed constitution, the single currency and the performance of the European economy. From the UK’s perspective, they are in many ways inter-related.

When this government first came to office in 1997, it was transparently Europhile, committed to placing the UK at ‘the heart of Europe’. Now, as Tony Blair starts on his final term, that stance has shifted almost 180 degrees. Hostility to the constitution and talk of the single currency area breaking up both appear to be the result of the continuing stagnation of the eurozone economies. The British public’s scepticism about closer integration seems justified and the politicians are following suit.

Since the single currency was conceived at Maastricht, the eurozone’s economic record has been deplorable. In terms of growth and job creation, the 11 members have consistently lagged behind the UK. As a result, in 2004 the unemployment rate averaged 8.6% in the eurozone (and even higher in France, Germany and Spain), compared with the UK’s 2.7%.

In the search for the guilty, European fingers point to the single currency. Polls in several countries suggest that a majority would favour the restoration of their original currency. While this is technically difficult and expensive, the sentiments are understandable. As many claimed at the time, the eurozone countries are very different from each other and at different points in their respective business cycles: they do not form an optimal currency area. It is not surprising, therefore, that a policy designed to suit the average works for hardly anyone.

The eurozone interest rate is set by the European Central Bank, which has an inflation remit less flexible than the terms of reference set by Gordon Brown for the Bank of England. As a result, the ECB has been inflexible and cautious, focusing more on inflation than growth. Fiscal policy has also been a problem. By locking themselves into the growth and stability pact, governments gave up a weapon to counter cyclical downturns in their own countries. In fact, during the long gestation period between Maastricht and the launch of the euro in 1999, too much policy attention was paid to getting countries ready in terms of the inflationary and budgetary convergence criteria and not enough on the structural issues which determine economic performance.

While euro-related policies are partly responsible, the so-called structural issues are a much bigger factor in Europe’s deep-seated malaise. In the period since 1945, Europeans enjoyed a rising standard of living, improvements in social protection, longer holidays, high social benefits and shorter working weeks. Any threat to reform this social model is fiercely resisted by electorates.

But the global economy has moved on from the time when Europe was a dominant economic force. Today, European workers cost about 20 times as much per hour as the Chinese, even though China produces increasingly sophisticated goods in direct competition with Europe. In the modern world, it is not enough for Germany or France to be more competitive than Italy or Spain: they have to be able to take on China and other Asian suppliers. This means wholesale changes, liberalising many parts of their economies, particularly the labour market. To many Europeans, such reforms are seen as an attack on the coveted social model. This was a major factor in the French rejection of the constitution – the feeling that they would have to embrace the Anglo-Saxon market approach to life.

It is something of an irony that while sentiment in Britain seemed to be opposed to the constitution, many Europeans were against it because it appeared to threaten them with the free market principles that have served the UK well since our own painful reforms of the 1980s. European politicians are caught in a classic catch 22. Many governments are unpopular because of slow growth, declining living standards and unemployment. Radical restructuring of welfare states, tax systems, labor markets and public sectors are a necessary prerequisite to reverse the downward trend, but this would only make politicians even more unpopular. Those not brave enough to face up to the need for change have one alternative – protectionism – and this promises an even faster slide downhill.

Incoming retaliation from China

China's foreign ministry today protested against a U.S. Pentagon report which correctly and accurately stated the communist Asian nation of China is rapidly boosting its potential to severely strike Taiwan and beyond and jeopardizing the balance of power in the region. The White House spokesmen affirmed Taiwan's sovereignty, and pledged to protect all Taiwanese land and recourses against any invader or any oppressor of freedom. ``The report unreasonably attacks the modernization of Chinese national defense and rudely castigates China's normal national defense constructions and military deployment,'' Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

China continues to deploy its most advanced weapons against Taiwan and is increasing emphasis on new technologies and strategies with the aim of winning ``short-duration, high- intensity conflicts,'' according to the annual Pentagon report released on Tuesday. China is increasing the number of short- range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan by about 100 per year, said the report released today. The balance of power in the Taiwan Strait appears to be shifting toward China because of its expanding economy, growing diplomatic leverage and improvements in military capability, the report said. Meanwhile, Taiwan's defense spending has declined, leaving vulnerable the island-nation China regards as a renegade province.

The U.S. had violated the basic principles of international relations and the three joint communiqués between China and U.S., Yang said in the statement. The U.S. has received gestures from China threatening to leave to six party talk with North Korea over comments of military build-up, or the blocking of lucrative oil with the communist Chinese government.

Can't we all just get along?

And so the country takes a brief breath before what promises to be a politically bloody summer with probably two Supreme Court seats up for grabs. The prospect: polarization of the left and the right and a testing of the center as never before. Democrats' hopes of blocking a staunchly conservative Supreme Court nominee on ideological grounds could be seriously undermined by the six-week-old bipartisan deal on judicial nominees.

With President Bush expected to name a successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor next week, liberals are laying the groundwork to challenge the nominee if he or she leans solidly to the right on affirmative action, abortion and other contentious issues. But even if they can show that the nominee has sharply held views on matters that divide many Americans, some of the 14 senators who crafted the May 23 compromise appear poised to prevent that strategy from blocking confirmation to the high court, according to numerous interviews.

The distinction is crucial because Democrats want to force Bush to pick a centrist, not a staunch conservative as many activist groups on the political right desire. Holding only 44 of the Senate's 100 seats, Democrats have no way to block a Republican-backed nominee without employing a filibuster, which takes 60 votes to stop.

Part of the problem is the political context of early 21st century America. If the right feels at times under attack and the left feels at times under attack, in a polarized polity the center is always under attack. The extremes are entrenched - they have a well-established apparatus of fund-raising and institutional support that the centrists cannot currently equal on a consistent basis. The center has briefly proved that it can hold against enormous pressure on both sides, but it will need to adopt far greater discipline and organization and a more coherent identity if it is to permanently turn the tide and restore proportionate influence to the moderate majority of Americans.

Wahhabism, The silent growing threat in America

When the horror of September 11 happened, Americans experienced a great deal of confusion and heard a great deal of speculation about the motives for anti-American terrorism. It was natural for most of us to assume that we were attacked because of who we are: because we are wealthy, because we are a dominant power in the world and because we represent ideas that are in conflict with the ideas of radical Islam. Many also assumed – wrongly I think – that it had mostly to do with the Middle East and Israel. But almost immediately a very interesting fact emerged: of the 19 suicide terrorists on September 11, 15 were subjects of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Why is this important? It is important because these were not poor people from refugee camps on the West Bank or in Gaza. These were not people who had grown up feeling some grievance against Israel and the United States because they lived in difficult conditions. These were not people from the crowded and disrupted communities of Egypt or Pakistan, or people who had experienced anti-Islamic violence in the last 20 years and had therefore turned against the United States. These people had grown up in the country that Americans often think of as our most solid and dependable ally in the Arab world – the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The ideology of Saudi hardliners is, unfortunately, of great relevance even inside the United States. One doctrine of Islam dominates in Saudi Arabia: It is called Wahhabism. Wahhabism is the most extreme, the most violent, the most separatist, the most expansionistic form of Islam that exists. It’s a form of Islam that not only lashes out at the West, but that seeks to take over and impose a rigid conformity on the whole Muslim world.

Islam was new in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Then, because of changes in the immigration laws, the American Muslim community suddenly became much larger. Most Muslims who came to the United States were not Arabs. The plurality have been people from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. And as Islam originally emerged as a major religion in the U.S., it – unlike other American religions – didn’t have an establishment. A disparate group of Muslims arrived and established mosques in various places. They represented different ethnic groups and lacked any structure to bring them together and unite them. But that didn’t last long. And why? Because the Saudis decided to create an American Islamic establishment based on the radical doctrines of Wahhabism. In order to bring this about, they created a system of organizations that would speak for American Muslims to the government and the media and through the educational system and the mosques.

There are three other areas where the Saudi government and its Wahhabi ideology have gained tremendous influence in the U.S. The first is in the American prison system. With one single exception, all of the federal and state chaplains representing Islam in American prisons are Wahhabis. That is, they are certified by groups originating in Saudi Arabia; the curriculum they follow was created in Saudi Arabia; and they go into our prisons and preach an extremist doctrine. This is almost the same as saying that they go into our prisons and directly recruit terrorists – although there have been cases of that. But anytime you go into a prison – an environment of violence, obviously populated by troubled people – and preach an extremist doctrine, there are going to be bad and dangerous consequences.

The second area is in the military services. Every single Islamic chaplain in the U.S. military has been certified by Saudi-controlled groups – which means that our military chaplains also hold to Wahhabi doctrines. Is it surprising, then, that we had the incident of the Muslim solider in Kuwait who attacked his fellow soldiers? Or the problems with military personnel at Guantanamo? Or the Muslim military man in Washington State who was trying to turn over useful information to Al-Qaeda?

And finally there is the problem with what are known as the Islamic academies: Islamic elementary schools, middle schools and high schools throughout the U.S. that are supported by Saudi money and preach the Saudi-Wahhabi doctrine – in some cases to Saudi expatriate children living here, but in many other cases to Muslim children who are U.S. citizens.

*BULLSHIT* White House spy leak implicated in London terror deaths *BILLSHIT*

This is a bullshit warning. Do not believe what you read on Eric Smith's blog. He is a terrorist sympathizer from North Carolina. Here are a few articles proving him wrong.

http://www.inthebullpen.com/archives/2004/08/02/cia-has-broken-al-qaeda-code/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1202798,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128084,00.html

*-*-*-*-*
posted by New American Patriot

Thanks to Daithí Mac Lochlainn, who pointed out this
unbelievable, horrific scandal to us.It appears that the Valerie Plame leak was
only one of the White House's spy leaks that may lead to the deaths of coalition
agents and civilians. ABC and the Pakistani government have gone on record
saying that last year, timed to coincide with the height of the media hype
surrounding the Democratic convention, the White House prematurely leaked news
of a Pakistani Al Qaeda capture in order to steal the media thunder of candidate
Kerry. Turns out the prisoner, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, had become a deep cover agent for the UK and Pakistani governments, and HAD ON HIS LAPTOP THE PLANS FOR THE BUS BOMBING THAT JUST OCCURRED IN LONDON! His mission had to be prematurely aborted as a result, and the first Al Qaeda mole was a bust. But Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security got the headline grabbing story and stole the media thunder from the Convention.

A simple fence could solve our invasion problem

Currently, the roads are a nightmare for Border Patrol officers and a huge advantage for the illegal aliens who slip through here every night. The solution, is to cut down the hillsides and use the dirt to fill a portion of the bottom of the gulch, creating a 90-foot-wide roadway across the top that can be fenced and lighted and patrolled 24 hours a day.

"At some point in time, we have to have an enforcement zone here," he said. "There's a problem at the border, and it needs to be fixed. Ignoring it is not going to make it go away." Since 1997, the Border Patrol has been building a barrier wall extending 14 miles inland from the point along the coastline where Mexico and the United States meet. It started as a 10-foot-high wall made of military surplus steel landing mats used for aircraft in Vietnam.

Over the years, the wall has been supplemented by a second fence made of steel mesh, with a lighted roadway between the two fences that is constantly monitored and patrolled by Border Patrol vehicles. But 3.5 miles of the project remain to be completed, and Smuggler's Gulch is the most vulnerable spot along that span between the ocean and the San Ysidro border station five miles inland. The Border Patrol wants desperately to complete the last section but has been stymied until now by environmental and regulatory roadblocks.

This spring, as part a military spending bill, Congress gave the Border Patrol a green light to complete the border fence, essentially pre-empting the state laws and federal environmental regulations that opponents had used in court to stall the project. The act left some state officials powerless, and fuming.

Opponents say that not only would such a project alter the landscape, but it also would create a huge problem of silt build-up in the Tijuana River Estuary, which runs from the gulch northwest to the Pacific shore. The estuary is a federally protected wetland and wildlife refuge that is home to a number of endangered bird species, including the light- footed clapper rail, the California least tern, the least Bell's vireo and the American peregrine falcon.

The project divides the area's congressional delegation as well. The primary sponsor of the barrier is Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, represents the district that includes the border and is a staunch opponent of the project, at least as currently designed.

Filner said the border fence would take $50 million to complete, money better spent elsewhere defending the border. But Hunter, who has been agitating for tighter security along the border for more than a decade, said the fence was necessary to protect the security of the nation. "There's just no sense in having that big a hole just a few miles south of the biggest naval base in the country," he said.

"Security concerns should override what I now consider to be frivolous opposition to this project," Hunter said. "I think it's time to move ahead and get this thing built."

The San Diego border fence has undeniably reduced the illegal traffic across the border in the southwest corner of California. In the early 1990s, the Border Patrol apprehended an average of 500,000 illegal border crossers a year in the San Diego sector, representing half of all apprehensions along the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Last year, the total was 138,000.

But as the traffic in San Diego has decreased, there has been an exponential rise in crossings in the Arizona desert, a far more hazardous route, as migrants have sought a less fortified path. In 1997, before construction of the San Diego barrier, the Border Patrol recorded 129 deaths among illegal migrants. Since then, the average has been close to 400 deaths a year, largely attributable to the more dangerous routes through desert and mountains of eastern California and Arizona.

Eric Smith is a scared bitch

Eric Smith has lately been made temporary famous by a post he put on his blog
about Karl Rove. Ever since he was discussed on leading news networks, comments
started rolling in on his blog. Unfortunately, the comments that were against
his point of view were deleted. One of the comments that was deleted contained
his home address in Japan. So, to make sure he doesn't delete them again, I'm
also going to post his address on my blog. And if you are reading this in Japan,
go ahead and take a trip to his house and shit on his yard.



Eric A. Smith
#301 Kami-Itabashi Apartments19-8
Toshinchou, 1-chomeItabashi-ku
Tokyo, Japan
174-007481-03-3959-5371

snowdog@juno.ocn.ne.jp

Illegal Alien Terrorism Connection

Illegal border crossings and apprehensions have dropped slightly in some portions of Arizona but now are soaring in the Yuma area of Arizona and California's Imperial Valley. Tighter border security in Tucson and San Diego appears to be pushing illegal crossers into the area which is now recording a record number of illegal immigrant apprehensions. There have been 109,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions in the Yuma sector since last October. That number is up 53 percent from the same time period in 2004. It also has broken the annual record of alien apprehensions in that sector which was 108,000 in 2000. Plus, there still are a couple of months left in the current fiscal year, which will push the annual total up even more.

The U.S. Border Patrol and the federal government recently dedicated more resources to the Tucson sector in an effort to stem a tidal wave of illegal crossings that occurred in Arizona after urban border crossings in San Diego and Texas were better secured after the Minutemen Project. The result has been a decrease in Border Patrol apprehensions in the Tucson region (which covers most of Arizona) but a record jump in illegals being caught in areas near Yuma and California's Imperial Valley west of San Diego and just across the Colorado River from Arizona.

In the Tucson sector of the U.S./Mexican border, there have been 361,000 illegal immigrant arrests, which is down from 367,000 a year ago. However, the Tucson border region, which covers most of the state, is reporting that marijuana seizures are up 10 percent. Border Patrol officials credit increased manpower and resources in the Tucson region for the drop in illegal crossings as well as hot weather which has dissuaded some crossers during the summer months.

Overall, the two U.S. Border Patrol sectors covering Arizona are showing an increase in illegal immigrant apprehensions (470,000 versus 438,000 in the same time period in 2004). Illegal immigration has a huge economic and fiscal impact on the state. Illegal immigrants are a major strain on government services, hospital emergency rooms and state prisons. The unsecured border also makes Arizona a top U.S. entry point for Mexican drug cartels and crystal meth distribution. There also are worries Al-Qaeda terrorists could use Arizona as a portal into the U.S. for a domestic attack. Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl held congressional hearings earlier this summer to show an increase in the number of 'other than Mexicans' caught trying to enter the U.S.

For the People, by the People, not against the People

One side says the problem is that Washington will not enforce the existing immigration laws. The other says the existing laws cannot be enforced, and that the United States should be more like the EU with completely open immigration for anyone.

Those concerned Americans who are banking on enforcement know that America can radically reduce the number of migrants crossing illegally from Mexico when the border is closed down and under control. This propelled the legislation President Bush recently signed that banned states from providing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission since all radical fundalmentalist muslims who attacked the WTC were able to get legetiment driver's licenses, and move around the country unstopped. Many Americans cheered the "Minutemen" who sealed a streach of the border in Arizona with volunteer patrols this spring. Many were surprised to learned that the Minutemen were able to stop more illegal aliens in the month they were active then the entire border patrol for the month. The Minutemen wants to fortify the U.S. Border Patrol with more agents and advanced technology. And it's pushing a bill that would nudge local law enforcement agencies to assume more responsibility for pursuing illegal immigrants, which is set to pass soon.

The assumption linking these ideas is that so many illegal immigrants cross the border (around 2 million a year) because America hasn't tried to stop them. "The immigration law is designed to look tough but not be enforced," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies.In a recent paper, "Downsizing Illegal Immigration," Krikorian laid out a sweeping long-term strategy for the enforcement camp. In it, he proposed a policy of "attrition" that would impose more enforcement pressure on the border and at the workplace and also demand proof of citizenship at all the checkpoints of modern life, "such as getting a driver's license, registering an automobile, opening a bank account and obtaining government services of any kind." The goal, he writes, wouldn't be to significantly increase arrests but to make it so unpleasant for illegal immigrants that more will leave and fewer will try to enter this country. In Arizona a proposition was passed by the voting citizens restricting government services only to U.S. citizens, but was struck down by activist judges.

The other side argues that the economic incentives are so great for Mexicans to migrate illegally to the U.S. Last month, the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, offered powerful ammunition to those skeptical of an enforcement-first solution. In a study, Princeton University sociologist Douglas S. Massey used government statistics and data from a Princeton project tracking Mexican migrants to argue that the big increase in U.S. enforcement spending over the last 20 years has been not only ineffective but also counterproductive.By toughening enforcement in the most frequently trafficked areas, Massey wrote, the U.S. has compelled illegal immigrants to cross in more remote locations. But that shift, he concluded, has failed to reduce the overall level of illegal entry and instead has triggered a series of unfavorable consequences. One is a rising death rate for migrants. Forcing Mexican migrants to cross in more remote areas has increased the amount they spend to reach America, Massey acknowledges. But in a final irony, he reports his data show that the average illegal immigrant now stays longer in the U.S., presumably in part to earn back the increased cost of their crossing.For Massey and others in this camp, changing the law is the key to enforcing it. It includes some measures to stiffen border security. Massey's research makes a powerful case that enforcement alone will never end illegal immigration. But a comprehensive attack on the problem probably won't pass Congress without more support for enforcement. Each side in this debate thus needs the other. Without a greater investment in enforcement, it probably won't be possible to modernize the immigration laws through an effective guest worker plan. But without modernized laws, a greater investment in enforcement probably won't yield much more control over the border.

The Red Planet

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is
catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest
approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars
may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on
Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has
not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as
long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within
34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest
object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will
appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification.

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be
easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at
10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at
nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's
pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in
recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to
see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Debate Update

Free Market News Network, an internet-based news network, has agreed to cover the entire Miami debate this Thursday, September 30th. We are using a medium that will be the wave of the future - and it is the Libertarians, Greens, and Free Market News that will be leading the way. Corporate media cannot suppress our message any longer. We are acting on our first amendment right and giving the American people what they want. Free Market News will be providing unprecedented news coverage. By going to the Free Market News' website (www.freemarketnews.com), you will find live coverage from the full day's events, including the debate, the candidate's rebuttals, reporter's commentary, and interviews. Free Market News is no different than any other cable news network, except they will be supplying expanded coverage that can only be showcased through the world wide web. The title of Joe Trippi's book says it all, "The revolution will not be televised".

Right now we need everybody that is anybody to post, announce, and spread the Free Market News website as far and as wide as you possibly can. Post to discussion lists, blogs, chat rooms, and anywhere else that is conceivable. Let America know that there is a real debate this Thursday, and it can be viewed in its entirety. We are battling time to promote this historic news coverage. You will be given the opportunity to witness every second of the Miami debate, the candidate?s rebuttals, and every second in between. Details and press releases will be avaliable ASAP.

www.freemarketnews.com

Scientists Debunk 'Global Warming' Effect on Hurricanes

A group of climatologists, scientists, professors and other experts in climate change on Tuesday pointed out two "misconceptions" reported in the press about hurricanes and their relation to climate change, in a letter to Sen. John McCain, who chaired a Commerce Committee hearing examining recent scientific research concerning climate change impacts.

"First is the erroneous claim that hurricane intensity or frequency has risen significantly in recent decades in response to the warming trend seen in surface temperature. Second is the claim that a future surface warming trend would lead to more frequent and stronger storms. We believe that both of these are demonstrably false," the scientists wrote.

They noted the National Hurricane Center reports in the last century the decade with the largest number of hurricanes to hit the U.S. was the 1940s, and the frequency of hurricanes has gone down since then.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme of the World Meteorological Organization, "Reliable data ... since the 1940s indicate that the peak strength of the strongest hurricanes has not changed, and the mean maximum intensity of all hurricanes has decreased."

"Recent history tells us that hurricanes are not becoming more frequent," the climate researchers wrote in the letter to McCain.

The second claim in news stories about hurricanes and "global warming," they pointed out, involves the question "if surface warming trends continue, are more or fewer severe storms likely?"

"Computer simulations suggest that in a warmer world most of the warming would occur in the Polar Regions. Atmospheric circulation, which crucially affects storms, is driven primarily by the temperature difference, or gradient, between the tropics and the poles," the experts wrote.

"Warmer polar regions would reduce this gradient and thus lessen the overall intensity or frequency or both of storms - not just tropical storms but mid-latitude winter storms as well (such as blizzards and northeasters)," the climatologists added.

"Again, longer periods of history bear this out. In the past, warmer periods have seen a decline in the number and severity of storms. This is well-documented in scientific journals for data extending back centuries or even millennia. If the surface temperature of the planet rises further in the future, it is likely that these declines will continue," they wrote.

The experts noted that the hurricane season has not yet ended and said the frequency of hurricanes varies.

"We suggest that natural variability of storminess is the cause of Florida's recent hurricane disasters. In such times there is an emotional tendency to pin blame somewhere," they wrote.

"But rather than blaming global warming - for which there is little supporting meteorological evidence - emphasis on emergency preparedness and further storm research would be a constructive response," they added.

Global warming is believed to be more of a phenomenon

Over the past 50 years, according to scientists at the Hurricane Research Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average May-to-December season sees 10 storms grow large enough to be given names. Six of those will reach sustained winds of at least 75 mph and thus become hurricanes.

The frequency of hurricanes appears to go in cycles that last from 25 to 30 years. From 1950 to 1969, for example, hurricanes were frequent occurrences in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Then followed 25 years of relative calm. Since 1995, however, the region has been buffeted by an average of slightly more than eight hurricanes each season, the most active period on record, although all of them don't make landfall.

The reason, scientists say, is the confluence of ingredients needed to stir up a storm. Those include warmer water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, low-velocity winds at high altitudes (high winds in high places tend to knock downhurricanes before they get started, a phenomenon known as wind shear); and higher humidity levels.

The warm water heats the air; the hot, moist air rises; the pressure drops; the prevailing east-to-west winds push into the area; and even Earth's rotation helps start the clouds moving counterclockwise. How big a role global warming may play in hurricanes' frequency is in question. In a letter sent two weeks ago to U.S. senators conducting a hearing on global warming, a group of 10 researchers said it is unlikely the phenomenon has any role in the increased number of hurricanes in the past few years. One reason is that global warming is believed to be more of a phenomenon near Earth's polar regions than near the equator.

Require proof of citizenship to vote: New idea?

Measure 200, as it is known, would require proof of citizenship to vote or to receive public benefits.

The response from the do-nothing political establishment (of both major parties) is predictable: The measure will "cost too much" because it is "too vague." With that weak argument causing snickers, the open borders crowd resorts to calling the measure xenophobic or even racist.
What's so terribly wrong with requiring proper identification to vote? And why exactly should taxpayers in border states be forced to foot the bill for health care and welfare benefits, among other public costs, for people who have chosen to break the law by entering this country illegally?

Sadly, there seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington and in state capitals to not enforce the law. Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson even said in a recent press interview that it is "probably accurate" to say that no one in immigration enforcement is out looking for illegal immigrants. In a world in which foreign terrorists delight in murdering Americans by the score, such a statement by the nation's top immigration official is downright insane.

We've said it many times before, but it always bears repeating in this context: We do not oppose immigration per se. Legal immigration, followed by assimilation into the American nation, has greatly enriched our country. But the current wave of uncontrolled illegal immigration, heavily weighted toward illegal immigration from a single country against the backdrop of an anti-assimilation bias in officialdom, is unprecedented in scope and poses a very real threat not only to immediate national security but also, in the longer term, to national unity.

Iraqi Corruption

Corruption as a topic is rarely dealt with in political or media circles in the Arab world. But corruption as a culture is not unknown in almost all walks of political and administrative life in the region. However, Arab countries have occasionally touched upon issues bordering on corruption, though in much less vigor than other parts of the world. Terms like nepotism, favoritism and profiteering are commonly used by politicians and media along with embezzlement and election rigging. But the discussions have seldom been accompanied with serious measures to combat corruption in government ranks.

Corruption cases that have rocked Arab governments are not hard to find as each new regime attempts to uncover the illegal practices of its predecessor in a well-orchestrated smear campaign. However, little effort has been exerted by most sitting Arab governments to uproot corruption by putting under the law senior officials from heads of state down to political appointees, general managers and officers in the military and security services.

Anti-corruption measures adopted so far have not been serious enough to eradicate the virus. Some measures have grabbed headlines in international press, albeit their limited scope and restriction. In February 2001, the authorities in Dubai, for example, arrested Obaid Saqr bin-Busit, the emirate's customs chief and chairman of the World Customs Organization on corruption charges. But these measures are isolated and do not attack the core of the problem. To succeed, the battle against corruption has to be relentless, permanent and backed by constitutional and legal codes.

Iraq and corruption

There is some common ground in all Arab countries as far as corruption is concerned. But in Iraq, the focus of this study, corruption practices are perhaps unique and unprecedented as they are spearheaded by the head of the regime, Saddam Hussein, his family, cronies and immediate associates with total impunity.

Nowhere is nepotism as discernible as in Iraq. Petty corruption among civil servants is widespread, often linked to traditions of wasta – the use of connections for personal gain. Saddam, his sons, relatives and henchmen violate laws and instructions and often bend them for their own purposes.

Iraqis know of scores of examples where illiterate and ignorant members of Saddam's clan are given high-ranking positions in the government, army and security services. Transparency is a word, which has no place in their lexicon. Tales of their illegal riches and wealth are legend.

Favoring members of one's own family and friends is in fact part of the culture of the whole region. But nowhere have inefficient and inexperienced relatives of a ruler been given so much sway over the destiny of a country and a nation as in Iraq.

Though suffering from international isolation and crippling economic embargoes, information on corruption is not hard to obtain in Iraq. Scores of local academics, senior officials, media and civil society groups and individuals have either lost their lives or been silenced after long jail terms for their courage to expose corruption and lack of transparent governance in the country.

Corruption is so pervading in Iraq that it currently undermines the capacity of all basic institutions, including the armed forces and the security organs on which Saddam heavily relies for survival. Corruption is enhanced by the total impunity of its perpetrators, particularly those with connections to the regime and its head.

Corrupt networks, related to Saddam, his sons, relatives and associates play an excessive role in social, economic and political-decision making. The concentration of power and income from illegal sales of oil and other commodities has fueled grand corruption in a state held hostage by Saddam and his family.

Despite its secretive nature, there is ample evidence of the regime's rampant corruption. There are plenty of examples, illustrating the devastating impact the corrupt regime has had on almost all ways of life in the country. Those in power in Iraq have become too self-absorbed and far removed from the people they are meant to serve.

But before delving into the corrupt world of the regime in Baghdad, a historical background of the roots and legacy of corruption and lack of transparent governance may be in order.

The tentacles of corruption in Iraq

1. Saddam Hussein

The international press is replete with stories, articles and reports of the financial empire, which Saddam Hussein has built up for himself and his family. It is alleged that the conglomerate is deftly administered by his half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, the formerly notorious chief of Saddam's dreaded Mukhabarat or intelligence. Barzan is said to have laid down the foundation of this secretive empire during his tenure as Iraqi representative at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva.

According to international press reports, the conglomerate includes front companies, banks and assets, equities and real estate across the world. It is likened to an intricate web, almost impossible to uncover. International commissions were set up to probe Saddam's secret cashes of hard cash but to no avail.

The failure to unearth Saddam's hidden billions does not vindicate the Iraqi strongman. There is no lack of evidence of how Saddam, his sons and henchmen have managed to earn billions of dollars in hard currency by illegally manipulating the U.N. –supervised oil-for-food program and running an extensive smuggling operation outside it.

Hussein & Sons have developed many channels through which they have managed to export oil in exchange for hard cash and goods not subject to U.N. oversight. These channels include Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iran and the Gulf states, and they are widening over time.

There is no authority in Iraq, which can stop Saddam Hussein from doing anything he likes. He, his sons and henchmen have total impunity and are never held accountable for their actions.

Saddam maintains firm control of the Finance Ministry, the Central Bank and the Oil Ministry. Selling oil, printing money and almost all state-run financial transactions cannot be carried out without his prior approval. Statistics on the earnings and expenditures of these institutions are among the most guarded secrets in Iraq and are only made available to a very limited circle.

Saddam, who rules by decree, hands out largesse and other benefits at whim. The finance minister and the central bank governor dare not question his orders, which usually include granting huge amounts of money to relatives, cronies and senior army and security officials. Recently, he personally supervised the distribution of tens of thousands of saloon cars reaching Iraq under the U.N. oil program. They were mostly given, free of charge, to henchmen, cronies, relatives and army and security officers.

B. Saddam's sons and relatives

The role of Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, and relatives of al-Majeed clan was gradually reinforced in the 1980s. In those early years of Saddam's despotic rule – he deposed Hassan al-Bakr as president in 1979 – rumors flew of the flamboyant lifestyle led by his elder son, Uday, and his blood-curdling stories of immoral behavior and practices that run contrary to the Islamic and Arabic norms of a traditional society like Iraq.

In the beginning, it was hard to confirm Uday's violent nature and immorality. But events later showed that almost whatever the Iraqis whispered behind close doors regarding Uday was true.

The 37-year-old son accumulated a host of roles, most notably ownership of the leading Iraqi daily newspaper Babel, and chairmanship of the country's Olympic Committee, football associations and journalists' union. He used these roles for purely personal gains.

Uday's income is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars a year and his ventures now include oil smuggling on a massive scale. He has been the linchpin of corruption in Iraq, competing with other family members and brutally squashing anyone standing in his way.

By the mid 1980s, Saddam's family, relatives and tribesmen were almost in total control of almost every aspect of life in the country. As a result, corruption became endemic and the family embarked on a cutthroat rivalry over wealth and property.

Uday illegally obtained ownership rights of some of the best ranches and factories in Baghdad. His insatiable appetite occasionally ran him into bloody clash with closest relatives. Favored by his father, Uday would always emerge a winner.

Arshad Yassin, once Saddam's chief bodyguard and one of his most corrupt relatives, saw his fortunes waning following a confrontation with Uday over property and smuggling of oil and Mesopotamian antiquities.

Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son in-law and once one of his best lieutenants, had to flee to Jordan in 1995, allegedly after a dispute with Uday. Uday himself took part in the liquidation of Kamel, his brother and father in a gun battle in the heart of Baghdad following their return from exile, spurred by a presidential pardon.

Before falling out, Kamel was Uday's corruption partner. Together, and through a dubious government privatization drive, they added the cream of Iraq's state-owned firms, farms and projects to their own mushrooming trade and business empires.

Uday and Kamel are also blamed for the crash of the Iraqi currency when they spread their control over the government-run money-printing house and flooded the market with paper money. They turned a blind eye to the Central Bank, which warned of grave financial consequences if they did not stop printing money without cover.

In less than a year, the Iraqi dinar dropped to 2,000 to the U.S. dollar from about 50. A year later, the dinar dipped to as many as 3,000 and many Iraqis began dumping the currency in favor of the dollar.

The dinar only rebounded when Iraq began exporting oil under a 1996 U.N. deal designed to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Iraqis from the crippling trade sanctions the world body has imposed as a punishment for Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

C. The state

The drastic fall in the value of the Iraqi dinar led to a dramatic decline in purchasing power, particularly of the low-income groups who make up the majority of Iraq's 22 million people. To exacerbate the situation, Saddam slapped a freeze on wages and salaries. While inflation ballooned, salaries remained the same.

In 1995, when the dinar saw one of its steepest declines, the monthly salary of a civil servant was about 4,000 dinars. Most Iraqis rely on government salaries for a living. But that meant an Iraqi teacher's monthly salary was roughly two U.S. dollars, perhaps one of the lowest in the world.

Salaries have not changed a lot since then, but Iraqis now have access to food rations distributed under the U.N. oil program. These rations have warded off the specter of massive starvation.

But the nearly two U.S. dollar-salary is still less than what one would pay for a fried chicken in Baghdad or a tray of 30 eggs. The collapse of the currency value, masterminded by Uday and Kamel with Saddam's blessings, paved the way for the disintegration of one of the most learned and law-abiding peoples in the Middle East.

Social values and ethics started crumbling and in their place a culture of corruption permeated through the state and has persisted until the present day. Bribes and kickbacks have become the norm rather than exception. It is now extremely difficult in Iraq to obtain documents or get access to officials and have your case settled without paying a bribe.

Major areas of corruption in Iraq

Corruption has become part of the culture of the place and has crept into all sectors, including the army, the judiciary, police, health sector and state-administered trade. Here are a few examples of how pervasive corruption has become in these establishments.

A. The army

The culture of Wasta thrived in the Iraqi armed forces shortly after the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Both officers and conscripts began exploring ways that would help them stay away from the battlefield. Many had to pay huge amounts of money to their superiors to be given non-combat tasks or simply stay at home.

Some conscripts were known to pay their salaries to their officers in return for extended leaves. Some soldiers and even officers were reported to have registered homes, cars and other belongings in the name of those with the authority to keep them away from the battlefield.

Stories abound of how senior officers, in collusion with army contractors, embezzled food rations and millions of dinars. Light arms and ammunition stolen from army depots were sold on the open market. Nepotism and favoritism played a big role in conferring decorations and medals during the war since they were usually accompanied with hefty financial benefits and gifts.

B. The judiciary

The regime blatantly mounted a campaign to meddle in the affairs of the judiciary in Iraq. Only members of the ruling Baath party now have the right to perform as judges in Iraq. A judge now must be a party member otherwise he will have to go.

The measure, sponsored by Saddam, dug the final nail in the coffin of the judiciary in the country. The judicial branch now plays little role in Iraq. The legislative branch is a rubber stamp as Saddam and his Revolutionary Command Council are the country's only legislators.

The judiciary has lost its prestige and independence in the country. Saddam turned it into a government-administered branch, prone to corruption like any other state establishment where bribes, nepotism and favoritism play a domineering role.

C. The police

The collapse of the dinar and the abject poverty of most of the population have led to a breakdown in law and order along with social values and ethics. Incidence of theft soared and crimes never heard of in Iraq became common occurrences. A demoralized, low-paid police force and security services took the opportunity to cash in on the rising crime incidence.

Iraqis found that the police occasionally colluded with thieves and criminals. Numerous thefts, after investigation, were found to be carried out with police assistance. Iraqis now need to bribe the police when reporting an incident. Relatives need to pay if they want to see their loved ones in jail.

The security services, the backbone of the regime's survival, are no exception. Forgery of passports and travel documents has always been an easy matter for those with money in Iraq. Though tightly controlled by security agents, many opponents of the regime have been able to leave after bribing their way through passport and emigration offices.

But the regime has no mercy for anyone caught with faked travel documents. Several passport officers have been arrested on charges of forgery and punished severely. The regime takes no chances when it comes to its security.

D. The health ministry

Smuggling of medicines and medical equipment is one of the most lucrative businesses in Iraq in which influential figures, among them Saddam's relatives, are implicated. However, corruption here is also carried out by officials on a much lower level.

Medicines of chronic diseases, which are hard to obtain from government dispensaries, are sold on the street at exorbitant prices. All medicine arriving in Iraq is supposed to be dispensed freely to the population under U.N. rules governing oil sales.

However, precision instruments, bought through the proceeds from oil sales, are smuggled to neighboring countries or sold to private clinics and hospitals.

E. The trade ministry

It is clear now that the regime has been manipulating the U.N.-authorized oil-for-food program as a means to "bribe" Arab and foreign countries. The trade ministry, which administers Iraqi purchases and contracts, openly links its business deals with the outside world to how sympathetic countries and individuals are of the regime. It pays lip service to sound commercial practices.

As a result, Iraq's partners have been exploiting the regime's approach of trade favoritism. They have flooded Iraqi markets with low quality and sometimes expired goods, which find no buyers in their original countries.

Even the local press has occasionally drawn attention to rotten items the trade ministry hands out to Iraqis as part of their monthly food rations. Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, one of Saddam's most loyal henchmen, is reported to have piled up huge wealth.

Saleh is the mastermind of kickbacks and commissions Saddam gets from murky and illegal trade practices. The international press has highlighted the re-sale of essential foodstuffs and medicines arriving in Iraq under the U.N. oil program to neighboring countries. The trade ministry is also blamed for importing food items unfit for human consumption.



Anti-corruption policies and future prospects

The future of the present regime ruling Iraq is in balance. Any discussion of the policies and measures needed to combat the rampant corruption in the country has to take future prospects and indications into account without ignoring the present situation.

There is a lot of speculation on the future of Iraq as a country and the nature of its political system in the future. Iraq observers and analysts put forward a variety of options for what is likely or unlikely to happen.

It is not the objective of this paper to dwell on the scenarios or possibilities of what might happen to the country. Therefore we will restrict ourselves to two major scenarios regarding Iraq's future as a country and political system.

The first scenario envisages a unified Iraq with territorial integrity and a democratic government that will help stabilize the political system and develop it in a positive manner. The second scenario conceives a situation in which the country implodes and turns into feuding and warring statelets.

And since all parties involved in the Iraqi case, including the present regime, its opponents, neighbors and the U.N. Security Council, support the idea of a unified country with territorial integrity, we will assume that the first scenario is the most viable and likely. This is the hypothesis of this study and its recommendations are based on this premise.

But we need to bear in mind that the collapse of the present regime will not automatically solve all of Iraq's problems. Those holding such a view will be proven wrong and naive. On the contrary, the removal of the regime may open the door for problems unheard of before. This is exactly what happened in the aftermath of the 1958 revolution that toppled the monarchy and the 1963 coup masterminded by members of the ruling Baath party.

A mere change of the regime will not put an end to corruption. We need to assume that only the emergence of a democratic system that holds integrity, transparency and accountability as the main pillars of governance will be capable of waging a successful attack on corruption.

Corruption is not new in the Iraqi society. Anti-corruption measures were taken by previous governments but with little or no success, though all of them were waged in response to mounting public pressure. Of the numerous anti-corruption campaigns, at least three are worthy of discussion here as each represents a certain era in the development and history of the Iraqi society and government.

1. Civil service reform

This was the first project of political and administrative reform in Iraq by a civilian government and in the shadow of the constitution. It was initiated shortly after the emergence of Iraq as an independent state in the early 1920s following urgent calls from the public and political parties for reform in response to the numerous financial and political scandals.

In those early days Nouri Saaeed had almost total control of the government with a lot of influence at the royal court. King Faisal asked Saaeed to undertake the reforms and eradicate corruption.

A law to purge the state of corrupt civil servants was issued but Saaeed employed it to get rid of his adversaries. Many innocent officials were sacked and replaced by Saaeed's supporters and henchmen. The campaign ended without achieving any of its objectives.

2. Military reform project

This was the second attempt at reform by the military. The 14 July 1958 Revolution mounted a large-scale campaign to purge the government, the army and the security services. In fact the whole of the governing class was replaced. The new government put forward an ambitious anti-corruption plan aimed at restructuring and reforming the whole of the political and administrative system as well as the armed forces.

However, the reforms ground to a half weeks later. Once the new clique of military officers took over, a bitter and bloody feud started over influence. Calls for reform and combat of corruption drowned in the face of the bickering.

3. Political reform

This reform program was the brainchild of the political parties and factions, which had some margin of freedom. It was launched in the aftermath of the 17 July 1958 Revolution but like its predecessors it achieved nothing.

The warring political factions stymied the program and engaged in a bitter and bloody fight. The result was a series of executions, murders and mutilations with the aim of scaring opponents. The situation continued with one party trying to finish the other. It only ended with today's reign of terror in which the ruling despots have brutally crushed opponents and squashed any attempt at reform.

Reasons behind failure of previous reform

There are of course reasons for the failure of the three reform projects. The author believes that any fresh attempt to combat corruption in Iraq has to take them into consideration. They include:

1. Lack of tolerance and absence of democracy. When the reforms were announced each party believed its tenets were right and sought to impose them on the others, using force if necessary. Every party thought the other side was alien and had no right to take part in governing the country.

2. Denying the right of the majority to rule through the ballot. Each side tried to exterminate the other before it had the chance to do the same to it.

3. Paying no attention to standing laws and regulations and the disrespect with which many dealt with the constitution.

4. Concentration of power in the hands of one individual or a group who put their own interests above those of the public and the state. There was no separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.

Importance of reform in Iraq

With the advent of globalization, Iraq's position as a major source of energy and a regional power becomes increasingly significant. Therefore, reforming its political, economic and judicial systems are of paramount importance not only to the country itself but the world at large. There are at least three reasons, which render reforms an urgent necessity.

1. The geo-political status of the country as a gateway to the oil-rich Arabian Gulf and the whole of the Middle East. World powers, particularly Great Britain and the United States of American, realize how important Iraq is in this respect. Before the collapse of the former Soviet Union, they feverishly sought to use Iraq as a bulwark against the spread of communism and later fundamentalism in the region.

2. Iraq has enormous economic potentials. Its proven oil reserves are the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia. It has massive deposits of sulfur and phosphates and huge potential to become the Middle East's breadbasket.

3. Besides its oil riches, present-day Iraq is the site of some of the world's greatest civilizations. The Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians set up unrivalled cultures between the Twin Rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. For five centuries, Baghdad was the beacon of Arab and Islamic civilization and a first class world power under the Abbasids. Iraq is rightly placed to play a big role in the current dialogue between civilizations.

Means to combat political corruption

No reform in Iraq will bear fruit without the establishment of a pluralistic and democratic system. The Iraqis, with all their different hues, ethnic affiliations and religious and sectarian factions, are unanimous that democracy is the only framework capable of bringing them under a unified Iraq. The Iraqi society is heterogeneous with different languages, customs, traditions and beliefs. Mutual respect and tolerance are of paramount importance and a society like Iraq will not thrive without democracy. For the reforms to have the chance of success, it is vital to take the following points into consideration:

1. Safeguarding human rights of the population as outlined in the International Human Rights Convention. Freedom of expression has to be guaranteed for all, including criticism of the government. Iraqis must have access to sources of information other than those made available by the government. Freedom of political parties is essential.

2. No one should be above the law and no authority, group or individual, should be given the right to promulgate laws, or issue decisions and regulations without recourse to the judicial authorities (parliament).

3. Concentration of power in the hands of an individual or special group should be avoided by all means available. Executive, judicial and legislative powers have to be separated. Ignorance of this fundamental principle was the main reason behind the failure of earlier reforms.

4. Rotation of power is important along with the universal respect of the outcome of fair and free elections. Iraq should be turned into a state of institutions and not individuals.

5. Transparency has to be reinstated. Corruption grows and thrives in the darkness. The state and its institutions need to adopt transparency in their decisions, activities and procedures. The media need to be given full freedom to bring to light all aspects of the government. A free press corners corrupt officials and hinders their activities by exposing them to the public and bringing them to justice.

Means to combat administrative and financial corruption

It is useless to reform the administration and civil service without first waging a war against corrupt politicians and policy makers. Misadministration flourishes under corrupt politicians and recedes under a pluralistic and democratic government where transparency, integrity and ethics prevail. Freedom of expression and press are vital pillars of any anti-corruption bid. Civil servants have to work under new strict guidelines. The whole of Iraq's civil administration structure is in an urgent need of complete overhaul. Here are some suggestions:



1. Restructuring the administration, which in certain aspects is still a legacy of the Ottoman Empire and British occupation of the country. The bloated system is now governed by an accumulation of laws and regulations some of them dating back to the 1920s. No serious attempt has ever been made to reform Iraqi civil service, by far the biggest employer in the country. Iraqi civil servants, humiliated and demoralized under Saddam Hussein, suffer from intricate packages of laws, regulations and amendments issued haphazardly and often at the whim of senior officials..

2. Laying of new guidelines to appraise performance of civil servants. The current system rarely acknowledges efficiency and innovation on the part of government employees. The only appreciation is to show loyalty and sympathy to the ruling Baath party and Saddam. The Iraqi strongman has set up a highly complex system of privileges and benefits which he hands out in the light of various decorations and medals he has been conferring on tens of thousands of supporters and associates. Hard work and diligence are no longer the measure but the number of medals. The guidelines have to discard all current system of largesse and benefits, get rid of favoritism and nepotism and set up a new approach that relies solely on expertise, efficiency and innovation.

3. Reinforcing auditing of revenues and public expenditures. Iraq needs powerful auditing bodies to examine and verify accounts of various state-run bodies and establishments. Also, an auditing system is needed to check accounts of senior officials including the president. Senior officials need to declare their income once they are assigned their posts. Another declaration is necessary when leaving office. Independent auditors should check the accounts and make them public if necessary.

4. Cultivating integrity and civil service ethics. It would be wrong in a future Iraq to assume that ethics and integrity are inherent and civil servants are not required to be trained to better their behavior. Intensive courses are essential to teach civil servants how to deal with private and public wealth and property, and how to treat clients and work with superiors.

Terror gangs in "Tampabay area"

A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled millions of Central and South Americans into the United States.


Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border.


El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against the US homeland. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States.


Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Tampabay area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington.



In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.

Iran nuclear program should not be ignored

Is Iran with oil-export revenues of more than $30 billion expected this year - on its way to producing nuclear weapons that would threaten not only neighbouring Middle East enemies such as Israel but also European nations? Britain, France and Germany launched an initiative last year to engage Iran in a dialogue, offering cooperation on peaceful nuclear energy and closer economic ties if Tehran renounced all activities that could give it a weapon-making capability, including enriching nuclear fuel. All three countries are now disenchanted at the absence of full, transparent cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and alarmed by Iran's announcement last week that it had begun processing raw uranium for enrichment.

Indeed, should it be allowed to do so? With growing unemployment among its young, and rising social tensions, can Iran afford to pursue the development of a nuclear arsenal? It is important to realize that the Iranian revolution has little to show for the 35 years of theocracy it has produced. The Mullahs have left Iran diplomatically isolated and in economic tatters. The ever increasing student demonstrations and civil unrest are the most visible signs of the nation's political turmoil.

And even with proven crude oil reserves of more than 130 billion barrels, and daily production of some 4.2 million barrels, can Iran - a nation of 70 million overwhelmingly poor people - afford to live off its oil revenues if imports, already at US$32 billion now, keep rising each year? The oil industry is not generating the volume of jobs required to alleviate Iran's reported unemployment rate of 16-17 per cent. Among those younger than 30 years of age, the jobless rate may be even higher. Inflation - usually a key indicator of economic health - is running in excess of 17 per cent annually.

What does non-citizen mean?

Should people who do not live in the US be able to vote? They are a non-citizen. We could have people in Mexico, Canada, Syria, Iran, and UK, to name a few, pick who our next president will be. And don't forget about nations that have dictatorships. The leader of that country could have an entire population vote for one candidate. Yes in this current age 43 countries still have appointed dictators. Will non-citizens have the same concerns as US citizens? Or would that non-citizen be more concerned with issues that positively affect their nation of choice? And what about immigrants that have entered the US illegally? The government has admitted that there are 8 to 12 million foreigners living here without permission from the American people. Are they considered a non-citizen? They have already broken US law entering the US, should they have the reward of voting in our elections.



State governments have been tripping over themselves to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. But Congress adopted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996 that prevents states from giving resident discounts to illegal aliens at Colleges and Universities that receive federal funds. Remember 1996, when Republican Congressmen would take a stand against the open-borders Democrat administration? With 41 co-sponsors from both parties, the DREAM act (S.1545) will repeal IIRIA. One wonders why they bother. California and Florida already gives in-state status to illegals, as do other states, in violation of federal law. Is that really fair? Why should out of state students pay more then a person who broke US law. Recalled former Governor Gray Davis signed a bill in October 2001 that offers in-state discounts to illegal aliens.

What about side-effects?

It seems more Canadians than ever are going to pot -- smoking up, toking up and generally embracing the sweet weed.

In fact, the proportion of Canadians who admit to indulging in marijuana or hashish almost doubled over 13 years -- and the highest rates of use were among teens, a report released Wednesday by Statistics Canada suggests.

That translates into about three million Canadians, or 12.2 per cent, who used cannabis at least once in the previous year, the federal agency said in its 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey. In 1989, the figure was 6.5 per cent.

Despite the apparent upswing in pot usage, Prime Minister Paul Martin said in Ottawa that his government remains committed to marijuana decriminalization and will reintroduce legislation after Parliament resumes in October.

And Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said that while he is concerned about the reported rise in drug use, he's unsure arguments that decriminalization would further increase marijuana use "have any validity."

"My view is that, if you make something illegal, some people are more attracted to it," he said. "It's just the high in getting something in a stealth(y) fashion ... If you allow people to possess it in small quantities for personal use, the allure kind of disappears for some people."

While the issue of decriminalizing cannabis has been much in the media spotlight, the latest national figures don't reflect those discussions: this survey was done in 2002, the year before an Ontario court judge made a precedent-setting ruling that possessing a small amount of pot was not illegal, and before Jean Chretien tried to ram through a decriminalization bill before stepping down as prime minister.

The hike in marijuana's popularity comes as no surprise to Edward Adlaf, a research scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, which has reported similar trends, particularly from its surveys of Ontario students.

"We've been finding during the '90s among students -- and these are seventh graders to 12th graders -- that fewer and fewer students perceive great risk in using cannabis," said Adlaf, noting that about three-quarters of Ontario students surveyed in the early '90s believed marijuana or hash posed a danger of physical harm; by 2003, that figure had plummeted to just over half.

A sea-change in perceived risk -- called "generational forgetting" -- is believed to be behind a resurgence in cocaine/crack use among teenagers, said Adlaf, explaining that most adolescents today have no experience with adverse cocaine effects, unlike students in the 1980s, who saw the death of U.S. comedian John Belushi, for instance.

Yet more recent deaths from ecstasy appear to have turned many teens against the "rave drug," said Adlaf, citing a survey by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health which showed reported use had fallen to four per cent in 2003 from six per cent in 2001.

The Statistics Canada study reveals that the increase hasn't been confined to cannabis, which includes marijuana, hashish and hash oil. The survey also found that a higher proportion of Canadians were taking other illegal drugs: cocaine or crack, ecstasy, LSD and other hallucinogens, amphetamines (speed), and heroin.

Overall, 2.4 per cent of the survey's almost 37,000 respondents, all aged 15 or older, reported using at least one of these other drugs in the previous year, up from 1.6 per cent in 1994. And 1.3 per cent, or an estimated 321,000 Canadians, had used cocaine or crack, making it the most commonly used of these illicit, harder drugs.

Cannabis use was most prevalent among young people, and it peaked in the late teens. Almost four of every 10 teens aged 18 or 19 reported having smoked pot or hash in the previous year. The proportion among 15- to 17-year-olds was three in 10.

A loosening-up in attitudes towards pot also has likely contributed to more people smoking up -- or admitting that they do. An Ipsos-Reid poll in May 2003 suggested 55 per cent of Canadians thought smoking pot should not be a criminal offence.

Greater availability of the leaf may also come into play. Students say pot is easy to come by and police are reporting increased seizures of marijuana plants, "very often through home-grow operations," Adlaf said.

Other Statistics Canada findings:


Almost half (47 per cent) of those who used marijuana or hash in the previous year did so less than once a month. About 10 per cent used it weekly; another 10 per cent smoked up daily.


Men were more likely than women to use cannabis (15.5 per cent compared with 9.1 per cent). The proportion of men was higher in all age groups except 15 to 17, where there was no difference.


Cannabis use drops off after age 24, although numbers in the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups were still substantial.


In every province except Manitoba, cannabis use was higher in 2002 than 1994.


In 2002, its use in Quebec and B.C. "significantly exceeded" the national average. Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I., Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan had lower than average rates.


The percentage of Canadians who had used cannabis at least once in their lifetime was above the national average in Nova Scotia, Alberta and B.C. For other drugs, Quebec, Alberta and B.C. topped the overall average.

Adlaf said another factor sending more marijuana up in smoke is the number of aging baby boomers, a generation that has come to be identified with the drug culture.

"We have a group who grew up in the '60s and a certain percentage of those continue to use," he said, citing a 1992 Ontario survey that found seven per cent of those aged 30 to 39 reporting cannabis use. Nine years later, that figure had rocketed to about 16 per cent.

"We have more and more adult users than we've ever had in the past."

Why more than 2 parties?

By now, we're used to seeing George W. Bush and John Kerry duke it out for the Oval Office every day on national TV, but rarely do we hear from third party candidates. Sure, there's Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent this time around, but there are other third party candidates out there running for the nation's top job, all with their own unique ideas on how to get America back on track -- ideas that don't sound half bad.

Four years later, many Democrats are still mad at Ralph Nader, calling him a "spoiler" for siphoning enough votes away from Al Gore to send George W. Bush to the White House; but the reality is that the 2000 race was so close -- Al Gore lost the state of Florida by a paltry 537 votes -- that the results could have been altered by any one of eight "third party" candidates running that year. It didn't help that Gore won the popular vote in neither Arkansas or his home state of Tennessee.

So why don't we hear more from third party candidates? Who are these political renegades who shun the traditional labels of "Democrat" and "Republican" and hope to lead America down a more independent path?

While someone like Ralph Nader can draw a crowd of the curious, most lesser-known candidates speak to audiences made up of chirping crickets and empty chairs. But it doesn't really matter: regardless of how many ears they bend, the fate of third party candidates is...well, pretty much a given. They lose. For the third party candidate, a victory is having the chance to get voters and the two controlling parties to hear their ideas.

An upcoming PBS special airing next week, Crashing The Parties 2004, shows that not all third party candidates are hippie tree-huggers and cause-of-the-week crockpots. Most all the third party candidates have real concerns regarding the direction in which America is headed and certainly have their own views and ideologies, but most all are also political novices -- struggling to be heard, with more ideas on hand than campaign money or corporate clout.

Green Party candidate David Cobb is originally from Houston, although he now makes his home in Eureka, California. Cobb is a longtime party mainstay -- successfully leading the charge to get Nader on the ballot in 2000 and spearheading the growth of the Green Party in Texas, unsuccessfully running for State Attorney General in 2002.
Repeatedly citing Ralph Nader as his inspiration for entering politics, Cobb boldly faced off against his hero for the Green nomination. Cobb’s victory was hard fought -- he ultimately was the only Green to campaign nationwide-- but also controversial. Nader proponents argued that a Green presidential candidate should run hard in all 50 states, regardless of the potential impact on the Democrats.

Cobb's camp advocates a "safe state" strategy, arguing that Greens in battleground states should vote their conscience and feel comfortable voting for John Kerry. Cobb can also be regarded as a "safe" third party candidate by the Democrats because he isn't famous like Ralph Nader and presumably would draw fewer votes.
Crashing The Parties is a fast-paced, entertaining look at presidential politics the way it should be -- stripped of hidden corporate agendas and talking points. The special takes us behind the scenes and inside the lives of the candidates and their families and the rocky roads they travel on their path to the White House -- a path that will ultimately hit a dead end.

Some political experts argue that the two-party system is weakened when smaller parties are allowed into the electoral process -- fragmenting the nation into special interest groups instead of building a broad-based consensus of voters; but supporters say these grassroots parties and their candidates actually make the elections more inclusive and representative of the public.

Consumers have a wide range of options, proponents argue -- in everything from the kind of car they drive to their favorite potato chip; so why shouldn't voters have more than two choices when it comes to electing a president?

Look out Iran

Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. (Syria is regarded as a major route for jihadis entering Iraq, and Iran appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons.) Even hard-liners acknowledge that given the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, a U.S. attack on either country would be an unlikely last resort; covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran.

Does the Heinz Company Outsource Jobs to Foreign Countries?

Shortly after reading a news report about Mr. Kerry's policy on outsourcing, I happened to look at the label of a jar of Heinz sandwich slice pickles. Yep...."Made in Mexico" Check some of your Heinz products.

Sen. John Kerry keeps talking about U.S. corporations leaving this country and setting up shop in foreign countries, taking thousands of jobs with them. He is right, because that has happened. However, he is trying to blame it on George W. Bush. As far as I know, Bush has not moved one factory out of this country because he is not the owner of a single factory.

That cannot be said about Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kerry's own 32 factories in Europe and 18 in Asia and the Pacific. In addition, their company, the Heinz Company, leases four factories in Europe and four in Asia. Also, they own 27 factories in North America, some of which are in Mexico and the Caribbean.

I wonder how many hundreds of American workers lost their jobs when these plants relocated in foreign countries. I also won