American Citizenship

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Give Us American Citizenship And Then Get Out Of Our Country!

This is an interesting, but hardly surprising development. From WorldNetDaily:

"While politicians debate the fate of some 12 million people residing in the U.S. illegally, the Mexica Movement, one of the organizers of the mass protest in Los Angeles this week, has already decided it is the "non-indigenous," white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call "our continent."

Here are some pics that were proudly displayed on the Mexica Movement website. As you look at these pics, remember that our Senate is filled with Republicans and Democrats who don't think the beliefs you're about to see expressed should be disqualifiers for granting someone American citizenship.
 

That's right! Americans have no right to control their borders because we don't own our own land!

I wonder if the Palestinians carried signs like this before they started blowing themselves up on Israeli school buses?

Is it really a good idea to allow people to stay in this country who believe that non-Hispanic Americans are "stealing" their land?

You didn't see this pic on the front page of your local paper, did you?

Here are some of the lovely sentiments from the page. Again, as you read this, tell me if it makes sense to want illegal aliens with this mentality in our country or if it makes sense to give them American citizenship:

One of the more negative parts of the march was when American flags were passed out to make sure the marchers were looked on as part of "America."

Yes, how terrible it would be for people to look as if they were, "part of 'America."

It was a great feeling to see our people really alive and united. We need to use this motivation, this heart to bring our continent alive with knowledge and actions that will liberate our people.

Do these "actions that will liberate our people" involve car bombs, molotov cocktails, or machine guns?

FINAL NOTE: Racist Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R of California 4th district) of red-neck Orange County said that he didn't care how long people had been in "this country" illegally, if they were here illegally for 5 or 50 years that they should be deported. Fine! Europeans have been here illegally since 1492, START THE DEPORTATIONS NOW! First one to go should be this Nazi Rohrabacher! Sensenbrenner, Schwartzenegger, Rohrabacher, funny how they all have Germanic names! .....No, it's not funny at all!

That's right! We need to get rid of the people who were born in America, so we can make room for more illegal immigrants!

In all seriousness, folks, when you turn a blind eye to people entering this country illegally, you can't be surprised to see these sort of attitudes on display. When the law is broken with impunity, why should anyone be surprised to see the lawbreakers grow more and more brazen?

Yet, we have representatives in Washington who want to give people like this citizenship in our country despite the fact that there are millions and millions of decent, upstanding people who respect and love this country so much that they're willing to wait in line to get their chance to come here legally. Why should Mr. "This Is Stolen Land" from Mexico be allowed to stay here in place of Mrs. "God Bless America" from Mexico who has done the right thing and obeyed our laws?

Admittedly, I'm not wild about the idea of a guest worker program. But, if we're going to do a guest worker program, it should at least by made up of people who respect our laws and view this as a land of opportunity instead of illegals who think, "This is stolen land."
John Hawkins | 06:10 PM | Comments (0)
Cynthia McKinney Follow-Up

Yesterday, after it came out that Cynthia McKinney had struck a police officer, I said the following:

Sounds like a clear cut case of assault. Wonder if Cynthia will 1) give a heartfelt apology, 2) give a cheap non-apology apology, 3) blame the cop for "making her" hit him, or 4) play the race card?

Given that Cynthia is a particularly kooky Democrat who loves to blame racism for everything, I'm going to guess 2 and 3, with 4 possible if this gets a lot of attention. But, perhaps she'll pleasantly surprise everyone with a 1. We'll see.

So, how did it play out?

Well, first of all, we have Cynthia Mckinney's official statement which essentially, as expected, is a 2-3 combo:

"Earlier today I had an unfortunate confrontation with a Capitol Hill Police Officer. It is traditional protocol that Capitol Hill Police Officers secure 535 Members of Congress, including 100 Senators. It is the expectation of most Members of Congress that Capitol Hill Police officers know who they are. I was urgently trying to get to an important meeting on time to fulfill my obligations to my constituents. Unfortunately, the Police Officer did not recognize me as a Member of Congress and a confrontation ensued. I did not have on my Congressional pin but showed the Police Officer my Congressional ID.

I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, that of thousands of others, and I appreciate the work that they do. I deeply regret that the incident occurred. I have demonstrated my support for them in the past and I continue to support them now."

See? It's all the fault of the police officer, who didn't recognize her. She also regrets, "that the incident occurred," but notice that she doesn't apologize to the officer for hitting him.

That's the official statement.

Now, here are the details from "An unconfirmed statement attributed to McKinney" that has been linked by Drudge.

"An unconfirmed statement attributed to McKinney has been released on the Internet, where she allegedly claims to have been harassed by Capitol Hill Police.

The statement's writer says that she has been harassed by white police officers she says do not recognize her due to her recently changed hairstyle.

"Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers," the statement says.

The writer details the incident, saying, "I was rushing to my meeting when a white police officer yelled to me. He approached me, bodyblocked me, physically touching me. I used my arm to get him off of me. I told him not to touch me several times. He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He then let me go and I proceeded to my meeting and I assume that the Police Officer resumed his duties. I have counseled with the Sergeant-at-Arms and Acting Assistant Chief Thompson several times before and counseled with them again on today's incident. I offered also to counsel with the offending police officer."

Ah, the race card. Big surprise there with McKinney, huh? But, is it for real? I called Cynthia Mckinney's office to find out. I read some of the details of the story, which they must already be aware of since it's linked on Drudge. Their reaction? They'll get back to me, but for the moment, they refused to confirm or deny whether Cynthia McKinney actually said that. Usually, that's short for, "we're trying to figure out how to spin this huge gaffe." So, I'm going to go ahead and proclaim victory on the prediction that she'd play the race card as well.

So, folks, do I know my kooky, race baiting, liberal congresswomen or do I know my kooky, race baiting, liberal congresswomen?
John Hawkins | 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
Answering 13 Frequently Asked Questions About Illegal Immigration

1) How many illegal aliens are there in the United States? Since they're not here legally, there's no way to do a precise count. Most estimates are in the 10-12 million range, but some people believe as few as 8 million illegal immigrants are here and others think the count may go as high as 20 million plus.

2) How do the American people feel about illegal immigration? Time and time again, across numerous polls, the American people have expressed displeasure with our lax border security and illegal immigration. Here's some info on some of the more recent polling data from a column written yesterday by Tony Blankley:

(A) Gallup Poll (March 27) finds 80 percent of the public wants the federal government to get tougher on illegal immigration. A Quinnipiac University Poll (March 3) finds 62 percent oppose making it easier for illegals to become citizens (72 percent in that poll don't even want illegals to be permitted to have driver's licenses). Time Magazine's recent poll (Jan. 24-26) found 75 percent favor "major penalties" on employers of illegals, 70 percent believe illegals increase the likelihood of terrorism and 57 percent would use military force at the Mexican-American border.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (March 10-13) found 59 percent opposing a guest-worker proposal, and 71 percent would more likely vote for a congressional candidate who would tighten immigration controls.

An IQ Research poll (March 10) found 92 percent saying that securing the U.S. border should be a top priority of the White House and Congress.

Unquestionably, the American people see illegal immigration as a problem and want the borders to be secured.

3) So, if the American people oppose illegal immigration, why does Congress seem so reluctant to do anything about it? The Democrats look at illegal aliens as an easy way to pad their vote totals. Because Hispanics tend to vote for Democrats in disproportionate numbers, 10 million illegal immigrants could translate into a net gain of 2-3 million potential voters for the Democrats once they become US citizens.

Republicans tend to be hesitant to crack down on illegal immigration because they fear alienating Hispanic immigrants and because the members of the business community who make money by hiring illegal aliens, funnel part of their ill gotten gains into Republican (and to a lesser extent, Democratic) coffers.

This leads to a situation where many Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill talk tough about illegal immigration and border security in order to placate the voters, but in actuality, they work hard to keep the flow of illegal aliens from being cut off.

Here's Mark Krikorian giving some examples of how our lawmakers often work behind-the-scenes to thwart our immigration laws:

In ninety eight, the border patrol noticed that the work force picking onions in the vidalia onion fields of Georgia appeared increasingly to be illegals, so they did some raids, arrested a few dozen illegal aliens, and all the rest of them ran off. So the farmers were there stuck with onions in the ground and no one to pull them out. It was all their own fault, they knew what they were doing, but nonetheless, they were outraged. They called their Congressmen, and by the end of the week, three of Georgia's Congressmen and both Senators, Republicans and Democrats, wrote a joint letter to the Attorney General demanding that the Immigration Service stop enforcing the law. Because they said the INS does not understand the needs of American farmers. Which in ordinary English means, "let them pick the onions, then arrest them. Preferably before we have to pay them". Well, the INS got slapped down and stopped.

So what they tried as an alternative to raids, was something called Operation Vanguard in Nebraska. It was sort of the first effort at something like this to see if it worked. They didn't do raids anywhere, all they did was subpoena personnel records. And they didn't just pick one or two employers, they did all the meatpacking plants in all of Nebraska, so that no one of them would be inconvenienced while the others benefitted. They took the personnel records back to the office, checked the Social Security numbers, and came back with a list of people who seemed to be illegal, who did not have authorization to work. They said "we know some of these people are legit and the records are wrong. We want to fix those people's records and the ones that are illegal, have to leave of course". They came back with four thousand names. One thousand people showed up and got their records fixed and three thousand were never heard from again. They were illegal aliens. It worked really well and it was intended to be repeated every two to three months so as to wean the whole industry off of the use of illegal aliens.

After one effort like this, the political and business elite in Nebraska went insane. The ranchers and the meat packers teamed up with the governor. The governor's predecessor, now Senator Nelson, was hired as a lobbyist to put an end to this initiative. Senator Chuck Hagel made it essentially his mission in life to see that this was never repeated and it wasn't. And the Senior INS official who thought it up in the first place was invited to retire early -- and he did. If you're a bureaucrat and you have kids in college, you're going to take the hint: Congress doesn't want you to enforce the law. So the Immigration Service essentially gave up enforcing the immigration laws inside the country. They focused on the important, but narrow, issues of criminal aliens and smugglers. I'm all for that, criminal aliens and alien smugglers are the scum of the earth, but there's a lot more to the issue than just that. But, going after those parts of the issue doesn't get you in trouble politically. So that's what they did, they gave up because Congress told them to stop doing their jobs. They really haven't changed that much (since) 9/11.

(continued...)
John Hawkins | 08:34 AM | Comments (0)
McCain And Falwell By Professor Bainbridge

If this isn't cynical opportunism, I don't know what you'd call it:

When McCain ran for president the last time, he denounced Falwell as one of America's "agents of intolerance." But now that McCain is gearing up to run for president as the GOP's establishment candidate, he has told Falwell that he spoke "in haste" in 2000. "It just came down to pure old politics in South Carolina and other states," Falwell said.

Falwell and McCain first made peace in a face-to-face meeting a few months ago. In a sign of their improved relationship, McCain has agreed to be the graduation speaker at Falwell's Liberty University on May 13.

This content was used with the permission of Professor Bainbridge.
John Hawkins | 08:20 AM | Comments (0)
Excerpt Of The Day: Former FISA Judges -- Bush's Warrantless Wiretaps Completely Legal

A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president's constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.

"If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now," said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. "I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute." -- The Washington Times

How ya like them apples, Russ Feingold?
J

So, I'm taking a look at this Muslim dating website that Ace Of Spades HQ is going on about and woah, I have to admit, this girl is kind of intriguing:

My username is geetarfarrah and I am a 20 years old Female.
I am Single and have No child.
I currently live in the city of Syosset, New York in United States.
I would be willing to relocate.
I am originally from Pakistan.
I speak the following languages: English, Urdu.
I am Somewhat religious.
My ethnicity is Mixed race.
My height is 5'2' (157cm) and my weight is 145 lbs (66kg).
I do not smoke.
My education level is Bachelor degree.

More about geetarfarrah in her own words:

I am an English major at Adelphi University in New York and I am in the teaching program. I have good domestic skills including cooking, cleaning,sewing, and raising farm animals. I�m an excellent conversationalist, of course only if you want me to be. Very subservient! ACT NOW!

On the downside, I don't like hash and I'm not sure I want to be in the same vicinity as any farm animals, but otherwise, geetarfarrah strikes me as an appealing woman.

Interesting thought: I wonder if it would bug Maureen Dowd that she's not married yet while Little Miss, "I love to clean, sew, and raise goats," probably has hundreds of guys salivating over the idea of having her as a wife?

Interesting thought #2: I hate reality shows, but you know what might be fun? A dating show that makes men choose between highly successful, independent, intelligent career women and a bunch of little geetarfarrahs whose only goal is to make a man happy.

Interesting related question: Do Muslim women date infidels? Most Christian guys I know wouldn't think twice about dating women who weren't Christians, but is it the same for Muslims? Back in college, I knew a few Palestinian girls and as far as I can remember, none of them used to date anyone besides other Palestinians.
John Hawkins | 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
Breaking News: Cynthia McKinney Slaps Cop On Capitol Hill

According to a source on the Hill, Cynthia McKinney was entering the building - a cop asked her to wait b/c he was screening people and she smacked him.

Details to follow.

PS: I'm only posting this because I'd like to beat Drudge to a story for once =D

*** Update #1 ***: I called Cynthia McKinney's office, but they refused, for the moment, to confirm or deny the story.

However, the National Journal now has the details:

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) punched a U.S. Capitol Police officer today after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.

Members are not required to pass through metal detectors and the officer, manning a position at Longworth House Office Building, apparently did not recognize McKinney and didn't see her Member pin.

The officer called out "Ma'am, Ma'am," in an attempt to stop her.

When the officer caught up to McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.

McKinney pulled her arm away, swung around, cell phone in hand, and punched the officer square in the chest, according to the witness."

Sounds like a clear cut case of assault. Wonder if Cynthia will 1) give a heartfelt apology, 2) give a cheap non-apology apology, 3) blame the cop for "making her" hit him, or 4) play the race card?

Given that Cynthia is a particularly kooky Democrat who loves to blame racism for everything, I'm going to guess 2 and 3, with 4 possible if this gets a lot of attention. But, perhaps she'll pleasantly surprise everyone with a 1. We'll see.
John Hawkins | 04:07 PM | Comments (0)
The Best Quotes From Getting America Right By Edwin Feulner And Doug Wilson

From Getting America Right:

Since 1965, according to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the federal government has spent $321 billion on education, including a 90 percent increase since 1997, compared with a 40 percent rise in overall federal spending. Shouldn't the logical result be all sorts of wonderful academic improvements in US schools? Sorry, it hasn't worked out that way. Since 1995 test scores for American school children have fallen steadily behind those of students in Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and most other industrial nations. In 2003, for example, the United States ranked fourteenth out of thirty-five nations in the eighth-grade math testing. In other words, it looks as though education ranks among the black holes of Federal Spending. -- P.22

Opinions differ on many of the complicated issues of the day, and a spirited debate in our political forums is a healthy expression of democratic process. Such debate is what allows opinions to change and consensus to form. But too frequently in recent years, the Court has stepped in and cut off this debate by imposing its personal moral judgments on the rest of the country. Did the framers really intend for a mere nine individuals to settle complicated moral questions? -- P.31

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which has been called the nation's report card, fewer than 25 percent of our high school seniors are proficient in math, science, or history. In an international comparison of students in twenty-one countries, US high school seniors ranked eighteenth in math and science literacy. Only about 70 percent of our high school students graduate in four years, and only a third of graduates have the minimum skills and knowledge needed to enroll in college. -- P.46

When it comes to local highways, airports, poor people, and school children, the locals invariably know most and the feds know least. -- P.52

As a nation, we have...created the most powerful government on earth. But, all too often, its seemingly benevolent programs succeed only in weakening people and condemning them to endless dependency. -- P.61

To appreciate what's at stake, you need to know that Social Security has lived on financial fantasies from birth. All the talk about a "trust fund" and a "lockbox" is fiction. The cash you pay in today doesn't build up, awaiting your retirement tomorrow. Instead, it is used immediately to pay yesterday's retirees; you will never see a penny of it. As Nobel Prize--winning MIT economist Paul Samuelson has noted, it is similar to the pyramid scheme created by the Boston con man Charles Ponzi in 1920, when he paid some suckers part of what he milked from others while keeping the difference. -- P.77

As recently as 1980, there were four workers' contributions to support every retiree. By 2030, there will be just two. Depending on who's calculating, Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in around 2017 and will be flat out of reserves by 2041 -- a slow motion train wreck happening while we watch. -- P.78

Even if the Social Security system were fully solvent, there's an added problem no one talks about. It is increasingly short changing its beneficiaries. When Social Security began, the payroll tax was just 2 percent of income. Now it's 12.4%. Today, the average male worker about to retire will typically get just a 1.27 percent return on his lifetime of taxes -- much less than he would get from a savings account. That's bad enough, but the younger you are, the worse it gets. Twenty-five-year-old workers can expect a return of minus 0.64 percent -- they actually lose money. -- P.79

...(T)he four annual Clinton budget "surpluses" in the fiscal years 1998-2001, supposedly totaling 558.5 billion, were virtually all the result of raiding the Social Security surplus (to the tune of $557.1 billion). If, like any company in the nation, the government had to include known future liabilities in its bookkeeping, estimates indicate the national debt would be reckoned at an astronomical $72 trillion--an incomprehensible number that US comptroller David Walker calls "chilling." -- P.88

In 1982, Congress passed a highway bill containing 10 earmarks for pork-barrel goodies -- 10 too many. By 2005, the number had somehow grown to more than 6300. --P.96

The Heritage Foundation's budget expert, Brian Riedl, maintains that a real war on government waste could easily save $100 billion a year without denting legitimate benefits of government programs. -- P.100

Buried in the Treasury Department's 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government is a short section title. "Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position." It contains the rather stupefying information that some $24.5 billion vanished into thin air that year. The government knows it was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what. -- P.100

Throughout the government, waste is virtually assured by the overlapping of dozens of programs created over the years to address similar problems. There are, for example, no fewer than 342 separate economic development programs, 130 programs serving the disabled, 130 programs serving at-risk-youth, and 90 for early childhood development programs. Hundreds more overlap in other fields, from international trade agencies (17) to teen pregnancy programs (27). The duplication not only wastes time, talent, and money; it also creates a chaotically confusing jumble of standards, rules, and specialty subprograms for potential users to navigate. -- P.105

In 2003, as we mentioned earlier, Congress passed the Medicare prescription drug entitlement. Accounting for an estimated $8.7 trillion of Medicare's staggering seventy-five-year unfunded liability of $29.7 trillion, its costs have been blithely ignored; there is no plan for paying them. As Comptroller General David Walker put it, "There is no way we are going to deliver all the Medicare promises that have been made. No way." -- P.118

In our view, government regulation of business should always be effective yet minimal, and it should always err on the side of promoting prosperity for the whole economy and all of our citizens, not just a priveleged elite. -- P.125

Free trade is an idea that goes back to Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics. It was Smith who first said, "If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it off them" -- and pay for it with some good or service that we have the comparative advantage in turning out. -- P.128

The link between economic freedom and prosperity is clear. The latest index found that the freest countries had per-capita income averaging $29,212, more than twice the average for "mostly free" nations ($12,839) and more than four times the per-capita income of "mostly unfree" countries. -- P.138

For decades, the United States and many of our well-meaning international friends and allies have tried to help poor countries by showering them with cash to help grow their economies. It hasn't worked. Between 1980 and 2003, we spent more than $116 billion for development projects in eighty-nine countries, half of them with per capita incomes below $765 a year. Of those countries, only thirty-two grew by more than 1 percent, and thirty-seven were worse off than when measuring started in 1980. Over the course of that twenty-three-year time frame, sub-Saharan Africa's per capita income fell from $573 to $514 -- a 10.3 percent drop. -- P.139-140

At 35 percent, the US corporate tax rate is at least twice as high as the rates companies pay in Ireland, Chile, Hong Kong, and Iceland. Estonia has no corporate tax rate at all, and even Denmark, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand have lower corporate tax rates than we do. We must strive to match our competitors. -- P.145

Twenty-four countries, including Canada, Australia, India, Mexico, China, Russia, and even Sweden, that poster child for the welfare state, have no death tax at all. And a recent study by the American Council on Capital Formation found that only two major nations have higher death-tax rates than the United States. -- P.146

Several years ago, a GAO survey found that IRS employees gave incorrect tax advice half the time. -- P.147

The Pentagon believes China may currently be spending up to $90 billion annually on its military, or three times the amount it officially acknowledges. China's defense expenditures at much higher than Chinese officials have publicly admitted," Rumsfeld told an Asian security conference in June 2005. "It is estimated that China's is the third-largest military budget in the world, and now the largest in Asia...Since no nation threatens China, one wonders: "Why this growing investment?" -- P.167

We didn't lose in Vietnam because we were weak militarily: Before, during, and after the war, we could have won any set-piece battle. But we used our strength irresolutely, and our enemy did not have to win in order to triumph. He had only to avoid losing until we got tired and went home. -- P.176

In Los Angeles in February 1998, a Gold Cup soccer game between Mexico and the United States brought our a fervent crowd of 91,255 fans, most of them Mexican immigrants. They waved Mexican flags, booed when "The Star Spangled Banner" was played, and pelted the American team "with debris and cups of what might have been water, beer, or worse." When a few fans tried to raise an American flag, they were attacked with fruit and cups of beer. "Playing in Los Angeles is not a home game for the United States," observed a Los Angeles Times Reporter. -- P.198

John Hawkins | 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
The Consequences Of The Republican Illegal Immigration Sell-Out In The Senate

Right Wing News is a mainstream, conservative blog that has exactly the sort of readership that Republicans in Washington should want on their side. These are the sort of people who contribute money to campaigns, man phone banks, put up yard signs, and make sure to show up when it's time to vote. In short, these are the sort of voters the GOP desperately needs to show up en masse in November of this year, if we're going to do well.

Unfortunately, because so many Republicans in the Senate have become arrogant and out-of-touch, they've lined up behind an outrageous bill that would not just allow illegal immigrants to stay in this country, but a bill that would hand them American citizenship as a prize for holding our laws in contempt.

Yesterday at RWN, there was a post about this bill. Here are just some of the comments RWN's readers -- who are, again, exactly the sort of conservatives whom Republicans will need most in November -- made on that post:

Read it and weep...

"Basically this is the Republican party telling the American people, f*ck you, we heard you loud and clear you voted time and time again when given a chance that you want immigration reform that stops illegal immigration and doesn't grant amnesty, we have seen the polls showing 60% don't want a guest worker program, but guess what, we don't care what you want, we are going to do what we want and what we want to do is capitulate to the democrats and create a new block of voters that will vote democrat. That's a pretty brilliant way to give away your majority." -- mbranca

Thank you, Arlen Specter.

"They are giving away their majority. Howard Dean need to nothing but keep his mouth shut and watch his party walk away winners in November." -- poordrunkannie

Thank you, Mike DeWine.

"Congrats to the GOP... I'm now a single issue voter... and most of their candidates are on the wrong side of that issue and to think that I used to donate money to these clowns." -- RepublicanPig1

Thank you, Lindsey Graham.

"I plan on contacting my Republican Congresswoman and let her know that if this goes down the way Spector wants, I will sit out the November Election..." -- CoolCzech

Thank you, Sam Brownback.

"...It is becoming more and more clear to me that there are negative consequences to this kind of loyalty. Republican officials take for granted that they will get votes because Republican voters don't want to stay home, and they don't want to indirectly support Democrats.

The thing they fail to account for is this: Eventually, for many people (and in todays atmosphere, it doesn't take all that many to tilt the scales) it gets to the point where you see no difference between voting Republican and throwing away your vote.

I have reached this point. From here on out, I'll vote for individual Republicans if I believe they are dedicated to representing my interests. But never again will I vote for or give money to a candidate just because the have an R next to their name. If that means I'm throwing away my vote, so be it. I'd rather vote for a loser for the right reasons than a winner for the wrong ones." -- President_Friedman

Thank you, John McCain, for saying this bill doesn't constitute amnesty.

"This bill is now the most prominent reason for those in the Republican base to not vote this year. It's the exact opposite of the gay marriage ban, this actually UN-motivates Those on the right. It would be understandable if it came from the Dem side, but FOR THE REPUB'S TO PUT THIS FORWARD IS SUICIDE!!! ARE THEY RETARDED?" -- anon2

Thank you, George Bush, for going against the majority of your own party and the majority of Americans with your pro-illegal immigration policies.

If this bill becomes law, in November, the Democrats -- if they're polite -- will be thanking these men as well -- for handing them the Senate.
John Hawkins | 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
The Sort Of People Who Did This Should Be Allowed To Become American Citizens?

"Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)"

Republicans in the Senate think the illegal aliens who hung our flag upside down, under the Mexican flag, should be allowed to become Americans? They should have been checked for green cards and deported on the spot if they weren't Americans.

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin
John Hawkins | 09:26 AM | Comments (0)
Excerpt Of The Day: A Brilliant Proposal To Deal With Car Theft.

"His Majesty thinks that it�s about time that Congress adopts a responsible, reasonable and realistic approach to the scourge of vehicular theft or, as we prefer to call it, undocumented possession of an automobile.

For too long, we�ve ignored this problem, creating criminals out of hard-working car thieves undocumented drivers and with very little to show for it. Indeed, for the last decade or so, about 1,200,000 undocumented drivers have been reported every year with absolutely no signs of the number going down.

...Obviously, there is no realistic way that our prison systems can accommodate 12,000,000 undocumented drivers, as some extremist pedestrophobes have suggested. And, of course, that would mean that we�d have to catch them all in the first place, which I think that it�s pretty obvious that we can�t.

Besides, as a nation of highly mobile people living in a vast area where transportation is vitally important, it goes completely against the values upon which we founded this society of ours to adopt such draconian measures against undocumented drivers who, let�s face it, just want a piece of the American Dream, feeling the wind in their hair as they race down the Interstate.

...So I propose that Congress, sooner rather than later, gather to decriminalize undocumented possession of an automobile. Under my program, undocumented drivers will be allowed to drive unattended automobiles that nobody wants to drive at the moment anyway and, after a three year period of driving responsibly, will be given the title to the vehicle in question.

Irresponsible, extremist, hateful and plainly un-American critics have suggested that this is unfair to those who�ve worked hard to gain documented possession of an automobile or even that such a program will discourage purchase of cars and encourage undocumented driving. To them I say� Well, I�m going to say something, as soon as I can come up with a brilliant retort. Rest assured, however, that it�ll include the words �racist�, �elitist�, �snob�, �pedestrophobe�, �totalitarian� and �doo-doo head�, not necessarily in that order.

...With this visionary program, I foresee that car theft will become a thing of the past in short order." -- Misha from The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

The Guinea Worm & African Culture

One of the things that puzzles a lot of people is why Africa is such a complete and utter mess. Explanations for why that's the case abound, but most of them conveniently try to blame the West for Africa's problems. You have people claim that colonization or slavery is to blame. Some people will tell you that the West doesn't care enough or that rich Western countries take advantage of Africa.

My theory? The culture in Africa, the backwards, superstitious, tribal mentality, that's almost incomprehensible to Westerners is what's dooming so many people in Africa to miserable lives and making real progress almost impossible.

Let me give you a piece of evidence, from the New York Times, that I think supports my theory.

The story is about the attempt to eradicate the Guinea worm in Africa. And the Guinea worm, as you're about to read, is a nightmare well worth eradicating:

For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet � or even eye sockets � of victims, forcing their way out by exuding acid under the skin until it bubbled and burst. The searing pain drove them to plunge the blisters into the nearest pool of water, whereupon the worm would squirt out a milky cloud of larvae, starting the cycle anew.

"The pain is like if you stab somebody," said Hyacinth Igelle, a farmer with a worm coming out of a hand so swollen and tender that he could not hold a hoe. He indicated how the pain moved slowly up his arm. "It is like fire � it comes late, but you feel it even unto your heart."

Sound horrible, right? Well, the good news is that the Guinea Worm, thanks to Jimmy Carter of all people, is about to be wiped out in Africa:

"Fewer than 12,000 cases were found last year, down from 3 million in 1986."

The bad news, or more appropriately, the strange news is that it took 20 years to get to this point. The reason why it's strange is that the Guinea Worm doesn't appear to be particularly tough to send packing, as the New York Times explains:

"(The Guinea worm) ought to be almost ridiculously easy to wipe out, because it has a complex life cycle in which humans, worms, fleas and shallow ponds each must play their parts perfectly. Any missing link disrupts the chain of transmission.

Wells can be drilled to prevent the afflicted from plunging their limbs into the village's drinking water. Or local water sources can be treated with a mild pesticide that kills the fleas that swallow the worm larvae and are, in turn, swallowed by the humans. Or every family can faithfully pour its water through a filter cloth each day, or drink through filtering straws. With unremitting effort, experts at the Carter Center now estimate, purging the last nine African countries of the disease could take five more years. Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, technical director of its campaign, says he is sure that, at long last, victory is in sight."

So, what's the problem here? You would think this could have been done in a year, tops. Well, the problem is the culture as you're about to see in this long excerpt about the agonizing quest to clear an area called Ogi of the worm:

"In 2001, Jacob Ogebe, a field officer for the Carter Center Guinea Worm Eradication Program, was trying to track down every pond in the area surrounding Ogi. He treated each with Abate, a mild pesticide that left the water potable, but killed the microscopic fleas that carry Guinea worm.

But slowly, he realized that Ogi's villagers were misleading him. He heard rumors of a sacred pond, but no one would take him to it. "They kept leading me to other places," he said. "Then one day, I was treating another pond, and I got lost and discovered it."

Though it is only a triangular puddle about 20 feet on each side in a heavily trodden grove of trees, the villagers revere it. "We have laws here, so no one dirties it," Gabriel Egba, the pond's high priest, said in an interview on its edge.

...The pond teems with whiskery fish, turtles and snakes. More important, villagers say they believe that the souls of their ancestors also dwell in it, and Mr. Egba officiates at the sacrifices of roosters and rams for anyone wishing to talk to them.

After Mr. Ogebe found the pond, he said, villagers tried to dissuade him from treating it. "Some of them offered me money to hide it," he said. "But I told my boss at the Carter Center. Then, each time I went to the village, people followed me around. There were threats on our lives."

But by November 2003, the Carter Center's office in Jos, the regional capital, had persuaded village leaders to treat it. Nigeria's political leaders, constantly on the defensive against foreign accusations that the government here is inept or corrupt, had developed a sudden interest in the country's increasingly successful Guinea worm eradication campaign. The Carter Center's office was able to send in its biggest gun, short of a visit from Mr. Carter himself: Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who ruled Nigeria from 1966 to 1975.

...On the day of his visit to Ogi, he was greeted politely beneath the village's central tree and was personally invited to pour the Abate into the pond. But when he and the other dignitaries walked the several hundred yards through tall grass to it, they found many of the village's women forming a human wall around it.

"They had colors rubbed on their faces to show resistance," like Indian war paint, Mr. Ogebe said. "They were chanting songs of their refusal."

Sarah Pantuvo, General Gowon's Guinea-worm eradication director, said the women shouted: "This disease is a curse from our ancestors, it has nothing to do with the pond water! If we let you touch anything, the ancestors will deal with us. We heard them crying all night!"

"I was very angry," Ms. Pantuvo said.

But General Gowon tried to defuse the situation, telling the women: "You, the women who fetch water from this pond, were not consulted about treating it? You should have been."

He assured them that the Abate would not harm the fish, and he told them that if their ancestors were benign, they would not want their children to be sick, and would like the pond treated.

But the women would have none of it. "Why don't you go treat AIDS instead?" they shouted.

Finally, he backed down, saying he would return when the women were ready.

That evening, he visited Matthew Ogbu Egede, the paramount chief of the area around Ogi. Chief Egede was mortified.

"I am a Christian," he said in an interview. "I don't believe in anything about juju. These people objected out of ignorance. The devil made them object."

He convened a meeting of "the elites," a local chiefs council. Furious, they ordered the village to accept the pesticide treatment and pay a fine of "one very mighty native cow, plus goats, yams and kegs of palm wine," Chief Egede said. The council sent the general an effusive letter of apology.

...Mr. Ogebe was allowed to treat the pond. Slowly, cases of Guinea worm disease died out in the area.

Let's look at what we have here. In 2001, they find a pond. A very simple act, pouring a mild pesticide into a pond to kill microscopic fleas, could have taken care of the problem right then and there. But, it took people who persevered, despite death threats, until November of 2003 to get the job done and it only happened after the intervention of the former ruler of Nigeria.

Those women, who were standing around the pond with their faces painted, worrying about their ancestors? If one of those same women had been adopted and taken to the US when she was a baby, she might be a doctor or computer programmer today. But, trapped by their culture in Nigeria, these women are acting in a fashion that probably would have been considered primitive 500 years ago.

And it's not just the Guinea worm. It's how they deal with other diseases, capitalism, technology, and all the other wonders and tribulations of modern life. These people are crippled by their culture and all the well meaning Westerners in the world aren't going to fix that. Until more African nations accept Democracy, the rule of law, capitalism, freedom of the press, and the other things that go along with a successful society, they're doomed to wallow in poverty in misery, no matter how much money or help we try to give them. They're living in a hell of their own making and until they decide they'd rather change their attitudes, there's only so much we can do to help them.

The Sort Of People Who Did This Should Be Allowed To Become American Citizens?

"Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)"

Republicans in the Senate think the illegal aliens who hung our flag upside down, under the Mexican flag, should be allowed to become Americans? They should have been checked for green cards and deported on the spot if they weren't Americans.