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Muslim man wins handshake case in Sweden   [2/08/10]
Here's another example of how when women's rights are in conflict with diversity, women lose most of the time. The West can have women's equality of Muslim immigration, but not both.

    Sweden's unemployment agency has been found guilty of discrimination for expelling a Muslim man from a job training program because he refused to shake hands with a woman.
        A Stockholm court Monday ordered the Public Employment Service to pay 50,000 kronor ($6,700) in damages to an immigrant from Bosnia who lost his jobless benefits when he was kicked out of the program.
        Citing his faith, the man had refused to shake hands with a woman when he was interviewing for an internship. The agency said his behavior was part of the reason he didn't get the position, and decided to exclude him from the program.
        The court ruled that the man was discriminated against because of his religion. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ruling would be appealed.
Meanwhile in the British Isles, another assault on women's rights is ongoing: Muslim man demands right to bring second wife to Ireland. He was welcomed
    A Muslim man has gone to the High Court in Ireland demanding that he be allowed bring in his second wife to Ireland.
        The native of Lebanon, where polygamy is allowed, says his polygamous marriage must be recognized.
        Liam Egan, a member of the Muslim Public Affairs Congress, told the Irish Sunday Times the man was being discriminated against unfairly. "It is draconian to treat this family differently," said Egan.
The cultural offensive by Islam on the West is endless. Muslim immigration should end immediately.

•   •   •  

Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico becoming 'narco-state'   [2/07/10]
More bad news from the crackhouse country next door: Presidente Calderon's military offensive against Mexico's drug cartels is losing ground rather than gaining it. The possibility of a failed state is becoming more likely. (And American taxpayers' $1.4 billion in military aid, aka the Merida Initiative, has been wasted down a rathole.)
    What's interesting in this thorough report is how it describes a real war scenario in which territory is surrendered by local officials to the gangsters, with the cartel taking over some of the functions of the Mexican government.

    MEXICO CITY - For months, the leaders of Tancitaro had held firm against the drug lords battling for control of this central Mexican town.
        Then one morning, after months of threats and violence from the traffickers, they finally surrendered.
        Before dawn, gunmen kidnapped the elderly fathers of the town administrator and the secretary of the City Council. Within hours, both officials resigned along with the mayor, the entire seven-member City Council, two department heads, the police chief and all 60 police officers. Tancitaro had fallen to the enemy.
        Across Mexico, the continuing ability of traffickers to topple governments like Tancitaro's, intimidate police and keep drug shipments flowing is raising doubts about the Mexican government's 3-year-old, U.S.-backed war on the drug cartels.
        Far from eliminating the gangs, the battle has exposed criminal networks more ingrained than most Americans could imagine: Hidden economies that employ up to one-fifth of the people in some Mexican states. Business empires that include holdings as everyday as gyms and a day-care center. [...]
        In many towns, smugglers pay for playgrounds and other things the government cannot afford. Bank loans are expensive and hard to get in Mexico, a lingering effect of the country's bank crises during the 1990s, so traffickers have stepped in to provide small-business loans.
        "What people did not recognize in Mexico was how deeply ingrained in both the economy and society the drug trade was," [Milken Institute fellow Joel] Kurtzman said. "So it's not as if the drug traders are unpopular - they're looked at in many cities like Robin Hoods." [...]
        In March, the financial magazine Forbes included Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman in its list of the world's billionaires for the first time. Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, was listed at No. 701 with a net worth of about $1 billion.
        In fact, Guzman's cartel and other gangs probably bring in $3.8 billion just to Sinaloa state alone, said Guillermo Ibarra, an economist who used bank and government statistics to compile an estimate this year.
        That is 20 percent of the state's economy, twice as much as all of its factories put together. The drug trade employs about a fifth of the state's 2.6 million population, either directly or indirectly, he said.
Of course, Mexican organized crime is well implanted in this country due to decades of immigration anarchy. The criminals swim in a sea of Mexican nationals, immigrants and illegal aliens who reside here in the tens of millions.
    As noted in the article, cartel gangsters have invaded America's premier national parks and turned vast areas of protected lands into toxic marijuana plantations. But Washington has never seen the assault on the parks by Mexican organized crime as a priority for serious law enforcement.
    Meanwhile, the Obama budget has taken money from border protection and redirected it into the window dressing that masquerades as airport security.
    So while the President is busy spending the country into oblivion and extending state power wherever possible, he is also weakening our southern border and likely enabling Mexicanization. Who says Obie can't multitask?

•   •   •  

Immigrants Top Ranks of Jobless   [2/06/10]
How bad is unemployment in this country? So bad that even exploitable illegals can't find work for dirt-cheap slave wages.

    Some 11.8% of foreign-born workers were unemployed in January, compared to 10.3% of native workers, the Labor Department said Friday.
        In addition to a deep recession that has wiped out more than eight-million jobs, the prevalence of immigrants working in the hard-hit construction sector helped fuel the higher numbers, according to analysts. [...]
        "I haven't had steady work for a year," said the Guatemalan immigrant. He used to send home $300 a month to help support his mother and three younger siblings. "Now, I barely earn enough money to eat and pay the rent."
        In the U.S. for four years, Mr. Ralda doesn't think of returning home. "There's not much opportunity in my country, either," he said.
        As an undocumented immigrant, he risks being caught and sent home if he tries to sneak into the U.S. again. Asked whether he had tried to find jobs at car washes or restaurants, Mr. Ralda said he had: "Those are all full."
Inquiring minds want to know how many of these struggling fellows are turning to crime to accrue some extra cash, as has been known to happen. See my 2008 blog, In DC, Last Week's Hard-Working Day Laborer Is Today's Burglar.
    By coincidence, the day laborers pictured below are located in Falls Church, Virginia, not far from the District. But perhaps I'm too suspicious.

Yoo hoo, illegal aliens loitering in the snow... it's nice and toasty warm back in the dear homeland.


•   •   •  

Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt arrives in a wheelchair to plead with judge not to throw her out of America   [2/06/10]
On Thursday I wrote about Aunt Z's court appearance, Auntie Mooch Gets to Stay a Few More Months (at Least). That was before the photo below appeared in Britain's Daily Mail.
    Aunt Zeituni is getting to be quite the clothes horse. Every time she appears in public, she sports a fancier outfit. (See photos from last December and August for earlier ensembles. In April she wore a herringbone coat and rust-colored wig to her court appearance.)
    No second-hand welfare rags for her; in fact she is quite well dressed, particularly for someone who lives in subsidized public housing and gets a stipend from Boston taxpayers.
    Inquiring minds want to know: Is the millionaire nephew sneaking her a few bills or does she have her welfare scam really wired?

Below, Zeituni Onyango leaves her immigration hearing on foot with a companion after arriving in a wheelchair.


•   •   •  

[Rep Steve] King on job creation: Crack down on illegal immigrants   [2/05/10]
Straight talk from the heartland courtesy of an Iowa Congressman...

    U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, is challenging the president to look at his plan to tackle growing unemployment, which more or less comes down to going after undocumented immigrants.
        In an Op-Ed published on his Web site, King said his idea would "level the playing field for law-abiding American employers and employees." His plan is to "clarify" that wages and benefits paid to undocumented immigrants are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. He would also mandate use of "E-Verify," an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee's Form I-9, to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. He would grant employers "safe harbor" if they discovered they had inadvertently hired someone illegally.
See Rep King's opinion piece, American Jobs Should Go To American Workers.
    According to the Department of Labor, the December national unemployment rate was 10 percent and Iowas unemployment rate was 6.6 percent. There are 15.3 million unemployed American citizens while the Pew Hispanic Center reports that 8 million illegal aliens hold American jobs. In Iowa alone, there are 112,700 unemployed workers while 35,000 illegal aliens hold jobs.
        It is inexcusable for American citizens and law-abiding immigrants to be jobless while law-breaking illegal aliens hold American jobs. New IDEA [H.R. 3580] clarifies that wages and benefits paid to illegal aliens are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. So if employers hire illegal workers, the wages and benefits paid to illegal workers will be denied as a business expense, resulting in taxable income for employers.

•   •   •  

Teen sought in Vallejo ice-cream truck shooting   [2/05/10]
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there was shock and revulsion about the Wednesday shooting of an ice cream truck driver, single mother Amarjit Kaur, in Vallejo. She was shot in the chest, but it looks like she will recover.
    This being California, the heinous crime unsurprisingly includes fascinating diversity aspects.

    Police say Montenegro and possibly a second person tried to rob Kaur, an immigrant from India who speaks little English. Montenegro shot her, apparently because she didn't understand their demands or react quickly enough, investigators said.
        "She is a very nice lady," said Raj Kumar, priest at the Vallejo Hindu Temple where Kaur worships. "She helps with cooking in the kitchen and cleans the church."
        Kaur is raising two daughters and a son and has lived in Vallejo for about six years after arriving from India, Kumar said. She has been driving the ice cream truck for five years to help support her family, he said.
Attention immigrants: it's to your benefit to speak English so you can respond to the commands of criminals.
    Speaking of the perp, police are seeking a 15-year-old runaway from his foster home, Peter Montenegro who is a school expellee and a Norteno gang member. He is described as "Latino, with short, dark hair, between 5 feet 6 inches tall and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds" (indicating a well-fed Mexican gang member).
    So it's a double-dip diversity story!

•   •   •  

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) Swearing-In   [2/04/10]
Sweet to see a pro-borders guy take the Senate seat formerly held by the evil Ted Kennedy, open-borders quisling from hell.

I turned on some joyful sounds, poured myself a nice shot of Bushmills and enjoyed the moment. Big win, assuming of course that he will indeed vote for borders and sovereignty.

•   •   •  

Asylum hearing for Obama aunt ends with no ruling   [2/04/10]
Oh, what a surprise. No judge wants to kick Obie's freeloader aunt out of the country, so Judge Leonard Shapiro kicked the can down the road in a secret hearing until May. He is probably hoping for a wide-ranging illegal alien amnesty to solve his problem.

    An immigration hearing for President Barack Obama's African aunt ended Thursday without an immediate decision in her second bid for asylum in the United States.
        Kenya native Zeituni Onyango did not comment after testifying for about 2 1/2 hours Thursday at the closed proceedings in U.S. Immigration Court.
        "The hearing went well. She was very honest. She was very to the point," her lawyer, Margaret Wong, said afterward.
        Wong said Onyango is hopeful the judge will rule in her favor because "she really wants to stay in America."
You bet she does! Auntie Mooch knows a good scam when she's found one, namely preying on the unprotected American taxpayer.

•   •   •  

Obama's budget curbs border programs   [2/04/10]
The budget contains more proof that Obie is averse to national security. His idea is to spend more money on airport window dressing by spending less on border security.
    One new item to be purchased will be pricey full body scanners for airports, which won't detect jihadists with surgically implanted bombs, so the intrusive machines are already obsolete.
    The administration could use more profiling to narrow the search for bad guys in airports, but would rather harass American grandmothers than focus on young Muslim males.

    WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is proposing to scale back some border security programs set up after the 9/11 attacks and ramp up aviation security following the attempted Christmas bombing, in what some conservative lawmakers say is a dangerous priority shift.
        Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the top Republican on the House panel overseeing the Department of Homeland Security's budget, says the border security funding in President Obama's budget for fiscal year 2011 is "woefully inadequate" and "as dangerous as it is indefensible."
        Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says her department's $56.3 billion budget for next year, up 2% over this year, enhances security "across the board." Department spokesman Bobby Whithorne says the budget "continues to support smart, effective programs to strengthen border and interior security" while making "significant investments in aviation security."
        If Congress approves Obama's proposals:
      • The Border Patrol, which doubled to 20,000 agents during the Bush administration, would lose 180 agents through attrition. Border staffing would stay the same.
      • A "virtual" fence of pole cameras and sensors aimed at stopping illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and terrorists on the U.S.-Mexican border, faces a $225 million cut from $800 million last year. That would delay implementation while a review of the fence, plagued by technical problems, is done.
      • Five of the Coast Guard's 13 elite Maritime Security and Safety Teams (MSST), created since 2001 to protect waterfront cities, would be eliminated. Obama is proposing cuts in New York City, San Francisco, Anchorage and King's Bay, Ga.
      • The existing 643 miles of concrete-and-steel border fence would be maintained but no new barriers would be built.
There is real danger from a porous border, one which our enemies understand. See a Fox News report from last June with Sara Carter following her Washington Times article Al Qaeda eyes bio attack from Mexico.

•   •   •  

Texas couple guilty of enslaving Nigerian widow   [2/03/10]
Of course the "Texas couple" are Nigerians as well.

    FORT WORTH, Texas - The Justice Department says a federal jury has found a couple guilty of enslaving a Nigerian widow at their Texas home for nine years.
        The department says in a statement that Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji each face up to 55 years in prison after their convictions Tuesday on conspiracy, forced labor and other charges.
        The statement says the Nigerian-born couple seized the woman's passport and made her work long hours as their servant with no days off and little pay. They provided no support for her six children in Nigeria and limited contact with her family.
        The statement says Emmanuel Nnaji sexually assaulted the widow.
        She escaped in February 2006 with the help of a Nigerian priest who lived in Texas.

•   •   •  

Taxi drivers accused of racism for displaying sign saying they are 'English speaking'   [2/02/10]
Obviously it is not racism to advertise the skill set of the driver. Prospective customers want to know that the cabbie will understand when they explain where they want to go. Communication is a central part of the job.

    A racism row has broken out after a city's taxi drivers started displaying stickers in their cars saying they are 'English speaking'.
        Up to a dozen drivers have been showing off the notices bearing the St George's Cross on the back windows of their cars in Southampton, Hampshire.
        The small red and white sticker declares the cab is being driven by an 'English speaking driver.' [...]
        Taxi driver Peter Ford, 48, said: 'It's just about letting customers know that the driver will actually be able to speak English, which isn't always the case.'
        Fellow driver Chris Head, 49, added: 'I have no problem with the stickers.
        'Lots of customers will wait at ranks until an English driver comes along because they want someone they can talk to.'
The aim of the complainers is to remove any responsibility of immigrants that they learn English adequately and assimilate to the society to which they have moved. The squawk squad wants to erase the social contract by which immigrants are accepted and given the rights of citizens on the condition that they take on the values of the majority community.


•   •   •  

Fate of Obama's aunt to be fought behind closed doors   [2/02/10]
Obie's illegal alien absconder Aunt Zeituni is back before the judge, and like everything else connected with this President, transparency is lacking.

    The illegal alien aunt of President Obama could learn this week whether she can put down roots in Boston - or start packing her bags for a one-way trip back to Kenya.
        And, save for U.S. Immigration Court Judge Leonard I. Shapiro, she'll know before anyone else. Zeituni Polly Onyango has persuaded Shapiro to bar the public from her removal proceeding Thursday morning at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, though it's unclear why.
        "I assume (Shapiro) thought it would be a three-ring circus. She's the aunt of the president of the United States - the most famous man in the world," said Mike Rogers, spokesman for the Ohio law firm defending Onyango, 57, against the Department of Homeland Security.
Don't the American people have a right to see whether their immigration system is being run honestly? (Like they don't already know.)
    The fact that she, an absconder, is still free and living rather well off the taxpayer is another reminder of how lawbreaking foreigners get the red carpet treatment while citizens get the shaft. The apartment she occupies should go to a citizen who needs it, not to a world-class mooch, whose millionaire nephew's subsidized housing has several spare rooms.

•   •   •  

Chances are dim, but advocates will still push for immigration reform   [2/01/10]
The open borders Energizer Bunnies are back, or actually they never went away.

    As President Obama vows to refocus Democrats' attention on jobs and the economy, advocates for overhauling the nation's immigration laws say they are still gearing up for a battle in the Senate in coming weeks, despite fading hopes for victory.
        Washington's drawn-out health-care debate badly damaged prospects for an immigration bill this winter. It ate up weeks of the Senate's time, sapped progressive lawmakers' energy and, most recently, stoked a populist backlash that cost Democrats the seat of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), the chamber's most prominent champion of liberal health-care and immigration policies.
My lurking fear is that some legislators figure they are so screwed by healthcare that they might as well fall on their swords for a permanent Democratic majority in the future. As long as Obie promises a nice appointment or ambassadorship for going down for La Causa, some may sign on for a personal political suicide mission.

The following item, also from the Washington Post today, is curious: Obama 2011 budget request: Department of Homeland Security

    The budget also sets aside $207 million to pay for refugee and asylum application processing, and $137 million to improve E-Verify, the employer program that electronically checks new hires' immigration status.
E-verify works perfectly well -- what kind of "improvements" do they want to make that cost $137 million?


•   •   •  

Seoul searching for new name in Oakland   [2/01/10]
This item represents a small skirmish in the ongoing diversity wars, territorial sub-topic. Humans are tribal beings, and immigrants would rather define their ethnic space than integrate with the national American community unless required to do so.

    Oakland's losing its Seoul.
        Under pressure from Koreatown's thousands of non-Koreans, the neighborhood's new "Oakland's Got Seoul" welcome banners will soon come down.
        In their place will be something that better reflects an area that some say is hardly Korean at all. The 14-block stretch of Telegraph Avenue is also home to Ethiopians, Afghans, African Americans, artists and others who don't identify as Korean.
        "When people saw the Koreatown banners, they said, 'Where did that come from?' " said Mohsin Sharif, co-owner of the Oasis Market, a Middle Eastern grocery in the heart of Koreatown. "The fact is, there's a lot more than Koreans here."
        The cost to install the original banners: $12,000, covered by a city redevelopment grant. The cost to take them down: $5,000, also paid by the city.
        Over the next few weeks, the Koreatown merchants association will hold a series of neighborhood meetings to decide how to better define the nebulous area sandwiched between Uptown and Temescal.
        "I think we need to be more inclusive," said Darlene Drapkin, director of the Koreatown Northgate community benefit district. "If we want to attract business, we have to be more open about the different nodes here."
The glorious promises of diversity haven't worked out. Instead of a kumbaya rainbow of happy people, the reality is one squabble after another over turf.

•   •   •  

Yemen plans U.S.-funded militant rehab centre   [1/31/10]
Your tax dollars at work, once again dumped down a sewer. This exercise in futility is the result of Obama's insistence on shutting down the excellent prison at Gitmo. The prisoners have to go somewhere, so dirtbag governments like the Yemeni get to demand money for a meaningless program to "rehabilitate" killers.

    Yemen will begin building an $11 million rehabilitation center for returning Guantanamo detainees in three months when it expects to receive funding from the United States, a government official said Wednesday.
        There are 91 Yemeni detainees left in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Washington suspended transfers to Yemen this month because of a deteriorating security situation in the country, in the throes of a crackdown on a resurgent al Qaeda.
        Foreign ministers of Western powers, Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey were meeting in London Wednesday to discuss ways to stabilize Yemen as it grapples with al Qaeda, a northern Shi'ite revolt and southern separatism.
        "Setting up the center will require $11 million and the U.S. side has announced it is prepared to provide the entire sum," the official said, declining to be named.
Hey, America has plenty of money to throw around, so Washington can continue to waste up a storm.

•   •   •  

Illegal-immigrant inmates no longer allowed in work program   [1/30/10]
Nearly bankrupt California just figured out that it is a waste of money to give job training to illegal aliens who will be deported at the conclusion of their sentences.

    A board that oversees vocational training and work programs at California prisons has voted to discontinue allowing undocumented immigrant inmates set for deportation to participate in the California Prisons Industry Authority certification program.
        Authority spokesman Tom Collins said the aim of the Prison Industry Board action Thursday is to "ensure that the effective vocational training that CalPIA provides is first applied to inmates who will return to California's communities following their parole, rather than training individuals who will not."
        The program, established in its current form in 1982, provides training and jobs in the manufacturing and agricultural industries for inmates in 22 prisons across the state.
        Approximately 427 of the 5,700 inmates now participating are under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold and will be deported once their sentence is completed. Fifty-two of the 727 inmate workers enrolled in certification programs are also under an ICE hold, according to a staff report recommending the change.
        Collins said he did not know why inmates with ICE holds were not previously deemed ineligible for the program, but that the recommendation for the change came up as the board was exploring options for lowering costs and improving the effectiveness of the program.
        Recidivism rates for inmates who participated in the program are significantly lower than inmates who do not -- 12 percent of certification program participants paroled in fiscal year 2007-2008 re-offend, compared to 42 percent of the general prison population paroled during that time, according to the report. The report also estimated that limiting the program to inmates eligible for parole in California could translate to fewer inmates re-offending and a savings of $784,000 a year in corrections costs.
While on the topic of prisons, here's a related factoid:
    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's suggestion on Monday to build a prison in Mexico raised several questions, not least of which was how many illegal immigrant inmates in California actually have Mexican citizenship. Here's an answer, according to a Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation analysis. As of Dec. 31, about 68 percent of the 22,173 inmates with an actual or a potential immigration hold identified themselves as Mexican natives.

•   •   •  

Fifth of Swedish population foreign   [1/29/10]
Worsening globalization has been building in the far north.

    Latest figures from Statistics Sweden reveal that in the last 50 years the number of foreigners living in Sweden or those with two foreign-born parents has risen from four to nearly 20 percent.
        A new report from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrn, SCB) reveals there are around 1.6 million foreigners currently residing in the country from a total population of 9.3 million.
        Annika Klinterfeldt, SCB population analyst told The Local the numbers are not surprising, with the total now surpassing 17 percent and edging ever closer to the 20 percent mark.
        "If we look at the trend over the last 50 years we can see growth in number of between 0.1-0.2 percent every year.
        "Back in 1960, foreigners or those with two foreign-born parents made up four percent of the population. It's been quite high for the last few years and we expect it to continue," she added. [...]
        Included in the Asian category, but not subdivided in the yearly report, are 142,053 Iraqis, 75,175 Iranians, 44,415 Lebanese, 35,886 Syrians, 27,552 Thais, 21,322 Chinese, 20,111 Vietnamese, 18 534 Indians, 14,292 Afghans, 9,818 Filipinos, 10,831 Koreans (North and South), and 10,823 Pakistanis.
The Tube below is an old Fox News segment, but it encapsulates the difficulty well. The problem is not just the growing percentage of foreign-born people, but the hostile Muslim ideology of many.

•   •   •  

Cats and dogs to be taken off menu in China   [1/29/10]
In the People's Republic, Beijing is making a big change in the chow department by ordering no more dogs and cats on the menu. It's hard to imagine that behavior will change much out in the countryside, but at least it's a start.

    From serving it with turtle to stewing it with snake, China has savoured the delights of dog and cat meat for thousands of years. But now, the country known for its experimental culinary traditions could be about to end a centuries-old custom and remove both animals from the menu.
        In what would be China's first law against animal abuse, anyone caught eating cat or dog meat would face a fine of as much as 5,000 yuan (450) and up to 15 days in jail. Organisations involved in the sale of either meat could be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan. A draft law is expected to be sent to parliament, the National People's Congress, in April, according to state media.
        Dog meat - known euphemistically as "fragrant meat" - is an age-old delicacy, believed to have warming properties that make it particularly favoured as a winter dish. Consumption is most widespread in the northeast, where temperatures plunge in the winter. Practitioners of Chinese medicine say that dog meat is high in protein and fat, good for the kidneys, and boosts energy levels and male virility. Some parts of China have large numbers of dog farms, particularly Peixian county in southeastern Jiangsu province, home 2,000 years ago of an emperor known for his love of stewed dog with soft-shell turtle. The animals are also raised for their fur.
This article is good as far as it goes, but doesn't mention the intentional cruelty in the slaughter process, due to the belief of Chinese that an animal that suffers as it is being killed tastes better. (For details, see my 2006 article Diversity Is... Cruelty to Animals.)

Below, caged cats on the way to a Chinese market to be sold for food.


•   •   •  

To ward off evil, Zardari kills one black goat a day   [1/29/10]
President Zardari of Pakistan, a man with control over nuclear weapons, sacrifices a goat daily to protect himself from witchcraft.

    A black goat is slaughtered almost daily to ward off 'evil eyes' and protect President Asif Ali Zardari from 'black magic'. Does this, and the use of camel and goat milk, make the beleaguered president appear to be a superstitious man?
        Well, not to his spokesman. "It has been an old practice of Mr Zardari to offer sadqa (animal sacrifice). He has been doing this for a long time," spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn on Tuesday.
Oh, he has been performing animal sacrifice for a long time, so that makes it not a superstition.
    But his detractors would see in his new-found religiosity a sign of nervousness in the wake of the scrapping of the NRO.
        One thing is certain: Hundreds of black goats have been sacrificed since Zardari moved into the President's House in September 2008. His trusted personal servant Bai Khan buys goats from Saidpur village. The animal is touched by Zardari before it is sent to his private house in F-8/2 to be sacrificed.
        Insiders say that when Zardari moved into the President's House, a flock of black partridges were introduced there for their supposedly magical effects.
        Unfortunately, the whole flock was electrocuted when a live wire fell on their cage.
        A camel, a cow and a few goats kept on the grounds of the presidency, however, survive and provide milk for its worthy resident.
It should be noted that animal sacrifice plays a big part in Islam (see The Virtue of Animal Sacrifice from an Islamic blog).
    However, the original reporting newspaper, Pakistan's Dawn, emphasized the superstition aspect: Goats sacrificed 'to ward off evil eyes'. Apparently it's okay to slaughter large numbers of animals to celebrate Eid, a major Islo-holiday, but the black magic thing is a no-no.
    No wonder India is nervous about nukes. Although average Indians rank high on the superstition scale, at least there's no indication that Prime Minister Singh takes action against the evil eye.

•   •   •  

Christian in Egypt: 'They Try to Kill Us'   [1/28/10]
In Egypt (and elsewhere), the Religion of Peace never sleeps when apostates are available to murder, as the Koran and other Islamic texts demand.

    Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment. They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country.
        Maher and Dina nervously agreed to meet us at a Church in Cairo. The priest at the Church said he feared problems from the Egyptian authorities and while he agreed to have us watch his Sunday mass, the Priest declined to speak to us about what is happening in Egypt and to the El-Gowhary's.
        They tell their story out of fear and desperation. Born Muslims they chose to convert to the Christian Church after both claim they had religious visions.
        Now Maher says "Muslims try to kill us, and will kill us if they find us." [...]
        In recent days the two met with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Cairo. They asked for refugee status to get out of Egypt.
        A source at the Commission says its a complicated matter because Dina has a Muslim mother and there are legal issues, but their request is being considered.

I'm not kindly disposed toward the Refugee Industrial Complex, since many of the refugee claims are fraudulent, and the program has been key to admitting criminally diverse people into this country, whose cultural cluelessness guarantees resettlement workers remain employed.
    But people like the father and daughter should be given safe haven in America: their lives are at risk. Instead, the refugee enablers continue to drag in potentially dangerous characters like the 6000 Somalis recently added to the pipeline. Nobody wants more of them, after their gangster behavior and support for Islamic jihad.
    Or are endangered Christians not eligible to be refugees?

•   •   •  

Poll: Fla. voters want immigration laws enforced   [1/27/10]
FYI: the Florida unemployment rate for December was 11.6 percent, considerably higher than the national average. The poll was in response to calls from elites to allow a flood of Haitians following the recent earthquake, which would affect Florida the most.

    Florida voters don't want immigration laws waived to make it easier for Haitians to stay in the United States or immigrate into the country, a new poll shows.
        Fifty-one percent of 1,618 registered Florida voters surveyed by Quinnipiac (Conn.) University said they wanted immigration laws enforced compared to 43 percent opposed to them being waived in the wake of the deadly Haitian earthquake Jan. 12.
        Voters were opposed, 50 percent to 46 percent, to a decision by the Obama Administration to grant temporary legal status for 18 months to Haitians living in the U.S. when the earthquake hit and divided on allowing more immigrants into the country. Quinnipiac said the survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
What sense does it make to welcome thousands more people into the country where there are no jobs for anyone? It doesn't help Haitians and serves to harm citizens.

•   •   •  

Venezuela and Securing Our Borders   [1/27/10]
Rep. Sue Myrick has long been a leader for America's borders, sovereignty and national security. In the Tube below, she explains how Hugo Chavez' Venezuela now provides an easy entrance point for Iranians and other unfriendlies to reach our country through the porous Mexican border.

Rep Myrick also discusses the category of Special Interest Countries, whose citizens (ASICs) receive a higher level of scrutiny when they are caught crossing the border illegally. Special Interest Aliens have been watched for a while -- persons who may pretend to be Mexicans but are Arabs or from other suspicious categories -- but the Venezuela connection is a new element.


Interestingly, every nation on this list is included in the 2010 Diversity Visa Lottery except for Pakistan and the Philippines, which are deemed by the State Deportment to be "not eligible" because we already have plenty of them. (Gaza and the West Bank are not real countries, but are full of jihad enthusiasts.)
    Washington's continuing generosity toward actual and potential enemies is truly astounding, not to mention unserious. The US government has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution (during which 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days), but Hilary Clinton and company manage to hand out Diversity Visas to those hostile folks. Yemenis attacked the USS Cole in 2000 off the coast of Aden and killed 17 of our sailors, but no problema there either. Dozens of young Somali men have left Minnesota to help out with killing infidels in their beloved homeland, but the doors remain wide open to them as well (including an extra 6000 in the refugee category this year).
    Clearly there is no recognition of a war on terror or against jihadist Islam, whatever you want to call it, in the halls of the State Department.
    Following is a list of Special Interest Countries to which I've added the number of Diversity Visas each received for 2010:

    Afghanistan 345, Algeria 1957, Bahrain 15, Bangladesh 6001, Djibouti 33, Egypt 4201, Eritrea 799, Indonesia 277, Iran 2773, Iraq 142, Jordan 143, Kazakhstan 343, Kuwait 70, Lebanon 181, Libya 152, Malaysia 60, Mauritania 20, Morocco 3124, Oman 2, Pakistan ZERO, Philippines ZERO, Qatar 13, Saudi Arabia 104, Somalia 229, Sudan 1084, Syria 98, Tajikistan 178, Tunisia 164, Turkmenistan 108, United Arab Emirates 30, Uzbekistan 4059, Yemen 72, Gaza, West Bank

•   •   •  

Feds find dubious home tax credit claims from Texas   [1/26/10]
"They only come to work"... and commit fraud when possible.

    Federal inspectors scouring tax returns that contain a credit for first-time homebuyers have found something curious about claims from Texas.
        Nearly 1,000 were filed by people employing a special taxpayer identification number primarily used by illegal immigrants, who are not entitled to the credit.
        The Texas filings represented nearly one-third of the 3,200 suspicious homebuyer credit claims submitted by noncitizens around the country. The value of the credits from all the noncitizen claims was $20.8 million, a U.S. Treasury Department inspector general said.
        Texas' total was almost double that of similar suspicious filings from California, a state estimated to have nearly twice as many illegal residents.

•   •   •  

Our daughters should not be cut   [1/26/10]
From the Salon webzine: a rare admission from a liberal media outlet that diversity has its costs. As a result of welcoming any and all, America has become the home of cruel and misogynous customs.

    Yes, FGM is practiced -- or at least planned -- on U.S. soil, on girls in immigrant families who were born and/or raised here. Perhaps even among people you know: Not long ago, a concerned mother posted on my Brooklyn-area parenting list-serv that she believed an eight-year-old friend of her daughter's had undergone some form of the procedure in her home country in the Middle East (and appeared to be markedly traumatized). Archana Pyati, an asylum attorney for Sanctuary for Families in New York, has encountered dozens of FGM cases just in the past six months. "The majority of our African clients have been through it, and most often, they are fighting to protect their daughters," she says. (Older relatives with "seniority" often push for the procedure.) "It is our hope that by recognizing that FGM may be occurring under our noses we will become better able to respond to it, just as we would any other form of violence against children," she says.
        Right now, though, that's not happening. While numerous countries, cities, and villages on other continents have made significant strides toward prohibiting and preventing the procedure -- and while it's been outlawed by U.S. federal law since 1996 and is also illegal in 17 states -- its practice by immigrant families here is, by all anecdotal reports, only increasing. Yet there remains practically no way to address it any way other than case by brutal, heartbreaking case. "The silence hasn't been broken here," says Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now. "It's an issue that affects thousands of [U.S.] girls, some of whom were born here, and yet no one is really paying attention."
Criminal individuals are not eligible for legal immigration to the United States, but certain cultures with criminal practices are made very welcome indeed. For example the prevalence of FGM among Somalis is 98 percent, yet Somalis are admitted as both immigrants and refugees in large numbers -- over 80,000 in 25 years, as counted up by Refugee Resettlement Watch. And 6000 more are in the pipeline for this year.

•   •   •  

Will Business or Labor Blink First? Immigration Reform and "Future Flows"   [1/25/10]
The author of this Huffpo item is Jeffrey Kaye, who has done immigration reporting for PBS. He is right that the phrase "future flows" is important: it hints at the long-term goal of the open-borders crowd, that legal immigration should be massively increased indefinitely.

    Here's a term--one you may be unfamiliar with--to add to your political lexicon: "future flows." In the weeks and months to come, we're going to be hearing it more as Congress very gradually turns its attention to reforming U.S. immigration laws.
        As legislators shape immigration legislation, business and union leaders are battling over the contentious issue of how best to control "future flows" of migrant workers. Even in a lousy economy, businesses want the ability to bring in foreign workers, skilled and unskilled, on both temporary and permanent work visas. A chief criticism by business of the last major overhaul of immigration law in 1986 was that the legislation, signed by President Ronald Reagan, contained provisions that gave workers amnesty (a good thing in their view) but failed to include any allowances for future flows (bad). On the other hand, unions historically have generally opposed temporary worker programs and denounced illegal immigration, fearing that migrant workers would undercut legal residents. However, labor's position has softened over the last decade in recognition of the glaring reality that as union membership has waned, the number and percentage of migrant workers in the economy has grown. For many union leaders, embracing, rather than shunning migrants seemed like a no-brainer.
Kaye goes on to explain how part of the latest amnesty bill includes a provision for a federal agency to determine the need for additional foreign labor, as if American workers didn't exist.
    The focus on labor is important since citizens are getting the shaft from Washington's legal immigration policy. As Gov. Dick Lamm has noted, "The United States has had zero net job growth since 2000, yet we have imported 10 million permanent immigrants in the same period."
    In addition, other major detriments to American society go unmentioned. They include social balkanization, bilingualism (i.e. Spanish everywhere), overuse of natural resources, national security threats, failing schools, increased crime, costs for building more infrastructure and the replacement of the independent values of Americans with the statism of most immigrant groups. What passes for debate on this subject is remarkably narrow these days.

•   •   •  

NYC's top cop Ray Kelly on decision to have terror trials in NY: We were not consulted   [1/24/10]
Obama-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed at your service, New York.

    New York City's Police Commissioner Ray Kelly addressed the New York Young Republican Club on Thursday. Two hundred and fifty members of the organization were in attendance and mainly peppered the commissioner with questions regarding the upcoming 9/11 terror trials that are to be staged in lower Manhattan.
        When asked how the decision for the trials to be hosted in New York came about, Commisioner Kelly's response produced gasps among audience members (h/t Loud Citizen).:
      "We were not consulted," Kelly said tersely of the decision. He stated that the trial "will raise the threat level of this city," a threat that "will not fade any time soon." And it affects more than lower Manhattan, we learned. "We will have to look at the entire city as a potential target."
    Commissioner Kelly also hinted that the terror trials could potentially be scrapped. He mentioned a recent Newsweek piece by Michael Isikoff discussing this issue. Moreover, lower Manhattan's Community Board 1 may very well veto the idea of the trials being held in their neighborhood.

•   •   •  

Ban on burqas receives strong public support in France   [1/24/10]
France is moving in the right direction, though it has taken long enough.

    A report drawn up by French MPs will this week call for a ban on Afghan-style burqas and other garments that cover a woman's face.
        The proposal has strong public support. According to an opinion poll by Ipsos for the magazine Le Point, 57% of voters favour a ban while 37% are opposed.
        The recommendations of a parliamentary commission, to be published on Tuesday, are expected to include a bar on wearing full veils on public transport and in schools, hospitals and public-sector offices including post offices. The commission is thought likely to call for a total ban after further consultation.
        President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a debate on veils last June, telling a special sitting of both houses of parliament that they were "not welcome" in France. He said last week the full veil was "contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women's dignity". [...]
        Hassen Chalghoumi, a Tunisian-born imam in northern Paris, backed the proposed ban last week, saying full-face veils had no basis in Islam and "belong to a tiny minority tradition reflecting an ideology that scuttles the Muslim religion".
        "The burqa is a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination," he said.
In addition, the burqa is a swell disguise for both common criminals and Islo-terrorists. Daniel Pipes has a rather sizable list of miscreant cases, remarking "one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets, driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces."

Below, a street scene in Marseille in the newly diversified France: "Is that a 9mm in your pocket or were you just shoplifting?"


•   •   •  

Feds Rush To Put Illegal Haitians To Work   [1/23/10]
Why is Washington giving away American jobs to lawbreakers, during a terrible jobs depression? The government has no right to hurt citizens in the process of helping Haitians.

•   •   •  

Editorial: Mexican migrants due for image makeover   [1/22/10]
In Dallas, the official Mexi-booster decided to pursue a contrarian marketing scheme by naming a few tiny defects in his countrymen's national character.

    Mexico's new consul general in Dallas, Juan Carlos Cue-Vega, has an admirable and ambitious agenda for the estimated 400,000 to 500,000 Mexicans living in Dallas and other cities covered by his consular region. Cue-Vega says his compatriots here have a bad reputation, and it's time for an image makeover.
        With refreshing candor, he is blunt about the problem: "Frankly, we have spoken about the issues that make us not look very good, like celebrations using guns, littering, [being] noisy in the neighborhoods, leaving the kids at home while going to work. These are social and cultural things that we need to change."
Hey, just hire an image consultant to make citizens forget about the unpleasant invasion aspect and the inappropriate cultural fit. That'll work, for sure.
    Plus, Senor Cue-Vega's list of behavioral piggery was far from complete. He could have included Mexican men's sexual pursuit of under-age girls, an epidemic of lethal drunk driving, a massive school drop-out rate, animal cruelty, an acceptance of corruption and propensity for crime of all sorts.
    Oh, and 58 percent of Mexicans believe the American border means nada.

•   •   •  

California unemployment remains at 12.4 percent   [1/22/10]
More dreary jobless numbers are now in for December.

    Imperial County in Southern California had the highest unemployment rate in the state at 27.7 percent. Marin County's rate was the lowest, at 7.8 percent.
        More than 2.2 million Californians were without work in December. The number does not include the nearly 500,000 workers who have taken low-paying or part-time jobs because that's all they could find, or the 115,000 people who have given up looking for work, according to the state.
        December capped off a dismal year where the state lost more than a half-million jobs. While most industries cut employment, there was one bright spot: Education and health care posted a 1.3 percent increase for the year.
        According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, California has the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the nation.
        Michigan tops the nation with 14.6 percent, followed by Nevada, Rhode Island and South Carolina. The nation's overall unemployment rate was unchanged in December at 10 percent.
In addition, Unemployment Rose In 43 States Last Month.

•   •   •  

Marc Thiessen on Hannity   [1/22/10]
The author of the new book "Courting Disaster" explains how the Obama administration has made bonehead national security decisions that endanger us all. Very informative and important.

•   •   •  

Man Claims Terror Ties in Little Rock Shooting   [1/22/10]
At a time when the Pentagon is doing a tapdance of denial about the jihadist motivation for the Fort Hood shootings, the Muslim who murdered a young soldier outside an Army recruiting station is insisting that he killed for Allah, as the Koran instructs.

    MEMPHIS - A Tennessee man accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station last year has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming for the first time that he is affiliated with a Yemen-based affiliate of Al Qaeda.
        In a letter to the judge presiding over his case, the accused killer, Abdulhakim Muhammad, calls himself a soldier in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and calls the shooting "a Jihadi Attack" in retribution for the killing of Muslims by American troops.
        "I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act," Mr. Muhammad said in a two-page, hand-printed note in pencil. The attack, which he said did not go as planned, was "justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad - to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims."
You can read the accused shooter's letter admitting to Islamic jihad over at Jawa.

•   •   •  

A Dark Day for the Enlightenment   [1/22/10]
Author Bruce Bawer resides in Europe, and has written a couple of books about the threat of Islam to western civilization. As a writer, he is particularly attuned to the Islam/free speech issue there. Bawer emphasizes the threat to traditional free speech posed by the inappropriate response of the west to hostile Islam, typified by the trial of Geert Wilders for insulting Muslims, which has just begun in the Netherlands.

    The charges are itemized. First, Wilders is charged with having "intentionally offended a group of people, i.e. Muslims, based on their religion." Second, with having "incited to hatred of people, i.e. Muslims, based on their religion." Third, with having "incited to discrimination . . . against people, i.e. Muslims, based on their religion." Fourth, with having "incited to hatred of people, i.e. non-Western immigrants and/or Moroccans, based on their race." And fifth, with having "incited to discrimination . . . against people, i.e. non-Western immigrants and/or Moroccans, based on their race."
        Supporting these charges is a long list of statements from Wilders, many purely factual, others opinions that follow logically from those facts. Among them: "The demographic composition of the population is the biggest problem of the Netherlands" and "those Moroccan boys are really violent. They beat up people because of their sexual orientation." Absurdly, among the statements cited in support of the charges against Wilders are his direct quotations from the Koran in Fitna, such as "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks; at length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly on them" and "Fight them until there is no dissension, and the religion is entirely Allah's." The summons also mentions footage shown in Fitna of imams preaching against unbelievers: "What makes Allah happy? Allah is happy if non-Muslims are being killed" and "Destroy the unbelievers and polytheists, your (Allah's) enemies and the enemies of the religion. Allah, count them and kill them up to the very last of them. And do not spare a single one."
Also worthwhile is the CBN reporting, Dutch Politician Facing Trial for Hate Speech.
    Hundreds of Wilders' supporters demonstrated outside an Amsterdam court Wednesday at the start of his criminal trial for allegedly inciting hate against the Dutch Muslim minority. The Dutch are not given to overstatement, but one paper calls this the "Trial of the Century."
        It pits Wilders' right to free speech against European notions of political correctness, and also against Dutch Muslim fears of persecution.

•   •   •  

The Fort Hood Report: Why No Mention of Islam?   [1/21/10]
How totally lame and PC is the Pentagon's report about the Fort Hood mass murders?
    So lame that even Time magazine noticed.

    The U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission.
        John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission and Navy Secretary during the Reagan Administration, says a reluctance to cause offense by citing Hasan's view of his Muslim faith and the U.S. military's activities in Muslim countries as a possible trigger for his alleged rampage reflects a problem that has gotten worse in the 40 years that Lehman has spent in and around the U.S. military. The Pentagon report's silence on Islamic extremism "shows you how deeply entrenched the values of political correctness have become," he told TIME on Tuesday. "It's definitely getting worse, and is now so ingrained that people no longer smirk when it happens."
Robert Spencer commented similarly: Pentagon on Fort Hood: Jihad? What Jihad?.
    Political correctness was responsible for the murders of thirteen people at Fort Hood. If it had not held the political and military establishments in a stranglehold, Nidal Hasan would never have remained in the U.S. military, much less risen to the rank of major. He would have been removed from the ranks long before he had had a chance to murder anyone at Fort Hood. Political correctness was responsible for the fear among his superior officers -- they knew that if they disciplined or removed Hasan, they would have faced charges of "discrimination" and "bigotry." And such charges can ruin careers these days.
I tried to watch the Fort Hood hearing on C-span yesterday, but the testimony was so abstract and dissociated from events that it hardly made sense. The Senators' questions were sensible, but Togo West and Admiral Vernon Clark were obtuse.

•   •   •  

Sen. Sessions Grills FBI Director Muller on Christmas Bomber   [1/21/10]
Inquiring minds want to know who gave the order that the Nigerian terrorist would immediately get all the rights of an American citizen.

•   •   •  

"Hate speech or Free speech? Geert Wilders on trial"   [1/20/10]
The trial of Dutch member of Parliament and free speech champion Geert Wilder began this week. The event is a disturbing marker of the devolution of Europe into Eurabia, because too many of the people would rather surrender to totalitarian Islam than defend their freedoms.

See also Geert Wilders' statement to the court, translated into English: Geert Wilders's speech at his trial today:

    I would like to make use of my right to speak for a few minutes.
        Freedom is the most precious of all our attainments and the most vulnerable. People have devoted their lives to it and given their lives for it. Our freedom in this country is the outcome of centuries. It is the consequence of a history that knows no equal and has brought us to where we are now.
        I believe with all my heart and soul that the freedom in the Netherlands is threatened. That what our heritage is, what generations could only dream about, that this freedom is no longer a given, no longer self-evident.
        I devote my life to the defence of our freedom. I know what the risks are and I pay a price for it every day. I do not complain about it; it is my own decision. I see that as my duty and it is why I am standing here.
        I know that the words I use are sometimes harsh, but they are never rash. It is not my intention to spare the ideology of conquest and destruction, but I am not any more out to offend people. I have nothing against Muslims. I have a problem with Islam and the Islamization of our country because Islam is at odds with freedom.
        Future generations will wonder to themselves how we in 2010, in this place, in this room, earned our most precious attainment. Whether there is freedom in this debate for both parties and thus also for the critics of Islam, or that only one side of the discussion may be heard in the Netherlands? Whether freedom of speech in the Netherlands applies to everyone or only to a few? The answer to this is at once the answer to the question whether freedom still has a home in this country.

•   •   •  

Hitler Finds Out Scott Brown Won Massachusetts Senate Seat   [1/20/10]
Let the jokes and send-ups begin!

•   •   •  

Massachusetts vote: Scott Brown's victory speech in full   [1/20/10]
So far, so good. There's a lot to like about Senator-elect Brown, particularly the following snip from his victory speech.

    I will work in the Senate to defend our nation's interests and to keep our military second to none. As a lieutenant colonel and 30-year member of the Army National Guard, I will keep faith with all who serve, and get our veterans all the benefits they deserve.
        And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.
        Raising taxes, taking over our health care, and giving new rights to terrorists is the wrong agenda for our country. What I've heard again and again on the campaign trail, is that our political leaders have grown aloof from the people, impatient with dissent, and comfortable in the back room making deals. And we can do better.
Have Donks and the President heard the message yet that we citizens are sick to death of arrogant Washington suits deciding what is good for us?

Brown's campaign website defines issues:

    Immigration
    I recognize that our strength as a nation is built on the immigrant experience in America. I welcome legal immigration to this country. However, we are also a nation of laws and government should not adopt policies that encourage illegal immigration. Providing drivers licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrant families will act as a magnet in drawing more people here in violation of the law and it will impose new costs on taxpayers. I oppose amnesty, and I believe we ought to strengthen our border enforcement and institute an employment verification system with penalties for companies that hire illegal immigrants.

    Gun issues
    I support the Second Amendment and believe that citizens have the right to keep and bear arms as a basic constitutional liberty. I support safe and responsible gun ownership.


•   •   •  

GOP rep.: Ft. Hood report 'sanitized'   [1/19/10]
More objections about the politically correct Pentagon report about the jihadist killer Hasan.

    The Pentagon's 86-page report on the Fort Hood massacre was "sanitized" to avoid discussing Islamic terrorism, the congressman who represents the base told POLITICO Monday.
        The report, released last week, says that the Army's middle management missed signals about Nidal Malik Hasan in the months leading up to the mass shooting.
        But missing from the report is any discussion of what Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) said was the a "crisis" with Islamic terrorism. Hasan allegedly wore ritual Muslim garb shouted "God is great" in Arabic when opening fire on a group of soldiers on the base - facts Carter said should have been disclosed in the report to help soldiers identify such signs in the future.
        A search of the report does not turn up any mentions of Islam.
More details about how Hasan was not held accountable by his superiors: Hasan's med training was troubled.
    Often teetering on failure during his medical training, Nidal Hasan hit a particularly rough patch in 2007 when his Army superior cited him for unprofessional behavior, inappropriately discussing religion, underperforming in his residency program and being too fat.
        Yet the same supervisor who meticulously catalogued Hasan's problems suddenly swept them under the rug when graduation arrived that year for the man now charged in the Nov. 5 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, government documents show.
        Hasan, then a captain, was rated "Outstanding Performance, Must Promote" by that supervisor, Maj. Scott Moran, and as "Best Qualified" by another, Col. John Bradley, shortly after he barely escaped the punishment of administrative probation.
It's good to see some names at last.

•   •   •  

Lake Worth area crackdown targets those who rob immigrants   [1/18/10]
Behold: your tax dollars at work, under the diversity-friendly Obama Justice Department. A big chunk of cash -- half a million dollars -- has been awarded to a Florida county sheriff department to protect illegal aliens from predatory citizens.
    Oh, the horror, for poor aliens who came to America for a better life, but get their cash pinched by the cruel locals.

    Criminals often target Guatemalans and other immigrants because they tend to carry cash and have traditionally been reluctant to report crimes.
        The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office hopes to change that.
        The sheriff's office recently won a two-year, $500,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department that will be used to educate the city's immigrants about crime and more vigorously prosecute gang members and other criminals who prey on them.
        "The suspects know if they wait it out long enough the victims won't show up for the prosecution," said Capt. Rolando Silva, commander of the sheriff's District 14 office, which covers Lake Worth. "It's a huge injustice."
        By March, the sheriff's office plans to hire a community liaison, a non-uniformed, bilingual civilian who will be charged with reaching out to the city's undocumented immigrants - those who might be reluctant to talk to uniformed deputies for fear of deportation.
That's right, a police department can't do proper outreach to illegal foreigners without a non-threatening bilingual specialist with cultural competence for Guatemalans.
    Immigrants also tend to engage in behaviors that make them easy targets.
        Some linger on street corners looking for work. They also spend time socializing on the streets in small groups at night.
Getting blotto drunk makes for an easy mark, also.
    The sheriff's office liaison is expected to teach immigrants how to avoid becoming victims and that they can report crimes in several languages without fear of being deported.

•   •   •  

Thousands protest sheriff's immigration efforts   [1/17/10]
A sizable gaggle of illegal aliens and their lefty pals gathered on Saturday to protest the competent immigration enforcement of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. You might think that a wise strategy would have been the sob-story appeal with lots of tearful kiddies that Mexes use so frequently.
    Instead, some paraders were decked out in Aztec drag -- not the most friendly message, although no human sacrifices were performed that we know of.
    Do the protesters pictured below look like immigrants or invaders?


    Phoenix police said Saturday night that five people were arrested during the protest and taken to Maricopa County Jail. Three were booked for aggravated assault on police; another was booked for aggravated assault on police and disorderly conduct. The fifth was booked for disorderly conduct and aggravated assault on police.
        Though the scene of the disturbance was cleared within minutes, the aftermath was chaotic. Protesters yelled obscenities at police officers in riot gear. One officer shook his pepper spray canister as he ordered people to keep moving. One protester wore goggles, and several others wrapped bandanas around their mouths.
        Critics have accused deputies working in Arpaio's immigration efforts of racial profiling, which the sheriff denies. He says his deputies approach people when they have probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.

•   •   •  

Hood massacre report gutless and shameful   [1/16/10]
Military analyst Ralph Peters has nothing good to say about the Pentagon's report on the Fort Hood terror attack, to put it mildly. In fact, he sounds furious.

    Rarely in the course of human events has a report issued by any government agency been so cowardly and delusional. It's so inept, it doesn't even rise to cover-up level.
        Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood never mentions Islamist terror. Its 86 mind-numbing pages treat "the alleged perpetrator," Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, as just another workplace shooter (guess they're still looking for the pickup truck with the gun rack).
        The report is so politically correct that its authors don't even realize the extent of their political correctness -- they're body-and-soul creatures of the PC culture that murdered 12 soldiers and one Army civilian. [...]
        Unquestionably, the officers who let Hasan slide, despite his well-known wackiness and hatred of America, bear plenty of blame. But this disgraceful pretense of a report never asks why they didn't stop Hasan's career in its tracks.
        The answer is straightforward: Hasan's superiors feared -- correctly -- that any attempt to call attention to his radicalism or to prevent his promotion would backfire on them, destroying their careers, not his.
        Hasan was a protected-species minority. Under the PC tyranny of today's armed services, no non-minority officer was going to take him on.
        This is a military that imposes rules of engagement that protect our enemies and kill our own troops and that court-martials heroic SEALs to appease a terrorist. Ain't many colonels willing to hammer the Army's sole Palestinian-American psychiatrist.
        Of course, there's no mention of political correctness by the panel. Instead, the report settles for blinding flashes of the obvious, such as "We believe a gap exists in providing information to the right people." Gee, really? Well, that explains everything. Money well spent!
        Or "Department of Defense force protection policies are not optimized for countering internal threats." Of course not: You can't stop an internal threat you refuse to recognize.
It's disturbing to see the extent of political correctness at the highest level of the military. Shortly after the Fort Hood attack, General George Casey opined, "And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." Now we see that he was not off the reservation, as far as dogma, from the rest of the Pentagon: diversity ideology has replaced protecting the country as the prime directive.
    And if the military is too PC to protect its own people, how can we mere citizens think that it will keep us secure?

Col Peters appeared on Fox News to condemn the Armny's political correctness: This Is A Whitewash! Ralph Peters On Pentagon Report On Fort Hood Shooting.

•   •   •  

The Underlying Tragedy   [1/15/10]
Columnist David Brooks tackled some tough questions in why large-scale do-goodery often fails when countries like America try to help disaster states like Haiti get their act together.
    Going to culture analyst Lawrence Harrison for guidance is always a good idea.

    Third, it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth - with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other.
        As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book "The Central Liberal Truth," Haiti, like most of the world's poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
        We're all supposed to politely respect each other's cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.
Prof. Harrison's chart of progress-prone vs. progress-resistant culture contains a lot of wisdom. (Larger image here.)



   

•   •   •  

Coakley Admits She "Looked the Other Way" on Immigration Law   [1/15/10]
Memorable quote from Massachusetts Senatorial candidate Coakley, "We are always going to have open borders."

Excerpt from an interview with Mindy Todd of WGBH-Boston on Nov. 17, 2009...

•   •   •  

Lake Co. sheriff: Arrest shows 'devastation' of illegal immigrant crime   [1/15/10]
You don't see headlines that the one above very often. The sheriff is correct that the ripoff from identity theft creates a huge burden for the victims.

    Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said the recent arrest of a Franklin Park man is another example of the havoc wrought by illegal aliens who commit crimes.
        Sergio Uscanga, 26, is charged with identity theft and forgery for using the financial information of a Lake Villa Township man to work for four years.
        Curran said Uscanga, who entered this country from Mexico, purchased the name and Social Security number of the 39-year-old victim.
        Uscanga used the information to apply for a job at Banner Service Co. in Carpentersville, Curran said, and was hired Sept. 12, 2005.
        This past December, Curran said, the victim received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service saying he owed taxes on the wages he had been paid from the job.
        The man called police, and Curran said sheriff's detectives tracked down Uscanga and arrested him Sunday morning.
        "This case is another example of the devastation criminals who are in this country illegally can cause," Curran said. "This victim will now have to spend months getting his credit straightened out and dealing with an IRS bill he does not owe."
        Curran, who has repeatedly called for harsh punishment and expedited deportation of illegal aliens who commit crimes, said it is estimated up to 50 percent of people in this country illegally have stolen identity information.

•   •   •  

Lawmakers urge improved defenses against extremism   [1/14/10]
Senators Lieberman and Collins, who head up the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, have essentially condemned the political correctness that has been hamstringing the military's protection of the troops.

    A Senate committee on Wednesday urged the Defense Department to take firmer steps to combat the threat of Islamic extremism within the ranks, calling the current procedures inadequate for heading off possible attacks.
        The recommendations by leaders of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee come as the Pentagon is preparing to release an internal review of the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead. That review, directed by two former senior defense officials, will propose ways to improve the military's ability to identify service members who may be a danger to others and quicken reaction times by emergency response teams.
        Led by Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, the committee's investigation of the Fort Hood has focused on whether the military missed numerous signs the accused shooter, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, had embraced a radical view of Islam.
        In a Jan. 13 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Lieberman, along with Sen. Susan Collins, the committee's top Republican, contend the threat of "homegrown terrorism" inspired by violent Islamic extremism is growing and the military isn't exempt.
        As a result, the Defense Department's existing policies for dealing with personnel that become involved in gangs and racist groups need to be expanded to cover new avenues of violence, Lieberman and Collins say. Not only will that head off future attacks, it will protect Muslim-Americans in the military from suspicion, they said.
The Senators' letter can be read at the Maine Public Broadcasting site: Collins Recommends Ban on "Violent Islamist Extremism" in Military.

•   •   •  

DWI killer of mother, daughter gets maximum sentence   [1/14/10]
On June 8, Lori Donohue and her 8-year-old daughter Kayla were hit and killed as they left the girl's dance class by a drunk-driving illegal alien (see New York State Mother and Daughter Struck Down by Illegal Alien).
    The killer was sentenced recently to the maximum allowable, after victim statements by Lori's husband Robert (pictured here) and her father, John Luhrs. However, 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison does not seem like an adequate punishment for causing the deaths of two people.

    An illegal immigrant who was driving with no license and a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit when he plowed into and killed a Southeast mother and daughter received the maximum sentence Wednesday of 8 1/3 to 25 years in state prison.
        Conses Garcia-Zacarias, 35, who has been held in the Putnam County jail since the June 8 fatalities, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Lori Donohue, 37, and her 8-year-old daughter, Kayla. The second-grader and her mother were leaving the girl's dance class at Seven Stars School of Performing Arts in Brewster when Garcia-Zacarias struck them with a pickup truck.
        The act instantly took away half of the Donohue family, leaving Robert Donohue and his 5-year-old son, Christopher, grieving for the wife and mother, sister and daughter they lost.
        "Explaining to my 5-year-old son that he can never hug or kiss his mother and sister was the most difficult thing I've ever done," Donohue told the court Thursday.
        Donohue was accompanied in Putnam County Court by more than two dozen friends and family members who took up four of the six rows in the courtroom.
        Lori Donohue's father, John Luhrs, 70, of Bethel, Conn., also gave a victim-impact statement. He placed photos of his daughter and granddaughter on the prosecutor's table before looking up at Putnam County Judge James Rooney and saying, "Your Honor: A parent's worst nightmare."
You can watch the victim's statements of Lori's father and her husband Robert in the video below.

Finally, there is a remembrance website, LoriandKayla.org.

•   •   •  

Dutch lawmaker tries to avoid hate speech charges   [1/13/10]
Back in the 1930s, when Winston Churchill warned of the threat from Hitler, he was disparaged by some as alarmist, but no one suggested that he should be locked up for damaging the self-esteem of the Nazis.
    Today's liberal society, however, demands punishment for those who voice unpopular opinion, e.g. the idea that not all diversity is equal, particularly the hostile Islamic variety. Elites insist that the west bend over backwards to protect the delicate feelings of Muslims, whose religion demands death for homosexuality, apostasy and adultery.
    Free speech is increasingly weakened as speaking ill of Islam is rapidly becoming a crime under European "hate speech" laws. Interestingly the Koran itself is full of admonitions to kill any and all non-Muslims and would be recognized as a document containing hate speech in any honest analysis.
    In fact, Geert Wilders' brief documentary film Fitna merely quoted and illustrated the Koran. For that defense of western civilization and exercise of free speech, Wilders now faces jail in the Netherlands.

    Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders asked judges on Wednesday to drop or reduce charges against him of criminal incitement, arguing that his anti-Islam message falls within the boundaries of freedom of speech.
        Wilders, one of the country's most popular politicians, is due to go on trial in March for allegedly insulting Muslims as a group and inciting hatred and discrimination against them.
        After the closed pretrial hearing at Amsterdam District Court, Wilders said the session was "the first day of a political trial."
        Charges against Wilders stem from his 2008 short film "Fitna," which offended many Muslims by juxtaposing Quranic verses against images of terrorism by Islamic radicals.
Below is clip of the first eight minutes of Fitna.

Geert Wilders has warned America that Islam's fanaticism threatens free people everywhere. In the talk below he quotes Mohammed: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight against people until they testify that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger." Europe's welcome of Muslim immigration looks more and more like a fatal mistake.

•   •   •  

Congressman seeking to bar Iranians from US   [1/12/10]
The above headline is from an Iranian news service, and they are most interested in how US policy effects them. In fact, Rep. J. Gresham Barrett would like to keep out citizens from other unfriendly countries as well.
    What's odd is that Iranians can travel here at all. There are no diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran, yet Iranians visit the US at will? How does that work? Even more curious is the diversity visa program, which always has a big slice for Iranians (e.g. 2,773 in 2010), despite the fact that Iran is a self-declared enemy os America. Nothing has changed since the Iranian occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran in the late 1970s.
    There's hardly a week that goes by without President Ahmadinejad threatening somebody. He has blamed this country for the protests in Iran -- like Iranians aren't sentient adults.
    Anyway, America has a right to regulate who enters the country, and a whole lot more regulating is indicated.

    A US congressman has announced his plans to reintroduce the Stop Terrorists Entry Program (STEP) Act into Congress, which calls for the deportation of most Iranians without permanent resident status.
        The STEP Act, a bill that was originally presented in 2003, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar citizens of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States.
        Rep. J. Gresham Barrett says he is reintroducing the STEP Act in response to the Fort Hood shooting, carried out by a US citizen, and the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit, attempted by a Nigerian national.
        If passed, the bill would deport all Iranians on student visas, temporary work visas, exchange visas, and tourist visas from the United States within 60 days.
Rep. Barrett's January 5 press release has more background:
    The State Department has indentified the following states as sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Given recent reports of increased levels of terrorist activities in Yemen, Congressman Barrett has requested that its citizens not be allowed to enter the United States.

•   •   •  

The diversity visa lottery must go   [1/12/10]
Roger Hedgecock has some compelling statistics about why the diversity visa is a national security threat. The diversity visa lottery picks 50,000 names out of a hat every year from countries deemed insufficiently represented in America's immigrant cohort. The idea is that America will be improved by still more diversity (!)

    Among the legacy-of-Ted-Kennedy laws that plague this country is one that guarantees the legal immigration of terrorists to the U.S. It's called the "Diversity Visa Lottery" or "Green Card Lottery." You must make this abomination a priority for repeal in Congress. [...]
        For 2010, 13.8 million people from eligible countries entered the lottery, and 102,800 were chosen by lottery to apply for the 50,000 visas available for 2010.
        In 2010, 72 citizens of Yemen are "winners" and will immigrate legally to the U.S. More than 1,000 Yemenis have been "winners" since 2001.
        In 2010, the 72 Yemenis will be joined by 2,773 Iranians, 4,201 Egyptians, 343 Afghanis, 98 Syrians, 229 Somalis, and (amazingly) three North Koreans! They are all legal migrants to the U.S.
        Are these "winners" checked against the various "terror watch lists"? Are they graduates of Gitmo? Are any "dots" connected in this program? No one knows - at least no one will say.
The only requirement to be eligible for the drawing is a high-school diploma (or equivalent) or two years of work experience. The winners are awarded a direct and rapid path to American citizenship. What could possibly go wrong?
    Maybe welcoming terrorists??
    One indication is that over a dozen countries getting diversity visas are on the TSA watch list for increased screening at airports, noted in the map below:


Incidentally these problems have been recognized for years (e.g. see my article from 2004, Time to Dump the Diversity Visa); they are just more outrageous now given the increased hostile activity by jihadists. The GAO noted in 2007 that nearly 10,000 visas had been awarded to citizens of state sponsors of terror, as noted in my blog from that year, GAO Notes Open Doors for Terrorist Diversity.
    (See the original GAO report: Fraud Risks Complicate State's Ability to Manage Diversity Visa Program)
    Finally, Congressman Bob Goodlatte has submitted legislation on several occasions to end the idiotic program. This Tube (visa lottery- a threat to our nations security), dated May 5, 2009, is a good explainer.

•   •   •  

TB a top priority for public health leaders   [1/11/10]
San Francisco has a full plate of sanctuary-connected problems, and one is the increased threat to public health because of putting out the welcome mat for illegal aliens from around the world. One result is having more than three times the national rate of tuberculosis.
    Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection which is passed through the air, so the crowded conditions common to illegal aliens are a perfect breeding ground for more cases to develop. Plus nearly a third of San Francisco residents are Chinese, and China is home to above-average rates of drug-resistant TB.

    About 100 cases of multi-drug resistant TB - and two to four cases of extensively drug resistant TB - show up in the United States each year. San Francisco usually sees one to four multi-drug resistant cases of TB a year. The city has seen one case of extensively drug-resistant TB. That patient was diagnosed in 2005 and it took three years to cure him.
        San Francisco gets about 120 cases of TB each year. That's about 14.6 cases per 100,000 people, which is twice the statewide rate and more than three times the national rate of 4.2 cases per 100,000. It's also the highest rate in the Bay Area, although several counties are also higher than the state and national averages.
        The reason for the high rate of disease in San Francisco is because of the city's large foreign-born population. Most people who get TB were infected outside the United States, including countries where the disease is much more prevalent.
The issue of drug-resistant TB is explained in more detail in a December article, First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US.
    "Drug resistance is starting to be a very big problem. In the past, people stopped worrying about TB and it came roaring back. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was himself infected with tuberculosis while caring for drug-resistant patients at a New York clinic in the early '90s. "We are all connected by the air we breathe, and that is why this must be everyone's problem."
The main reason for the re-emergence of infectious diseases once thought conquered has been the misuse of antibiotics, which has allowed drug-resistant mutations to develop. It also doesn't help when people with communicable disease are not kept out at the border.

•   •   •  

In Hasan case, superiors ignored their own worries   [1/11/10]
Politically correct superiors in the US Army let an obviously incompetent doctor advance in rank because no one wanted to speak ill of a Muslim.
    You might think the Army would put the safety and well-being of its soldiers as its top priority, but not so much, as it turns out. The Army was busy celebrating diversity instead of requiring competence. Thirteen people are dead as a result.

    A Defense Department review of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, has found the doctors overseeing Maj. Nidal Hasan's medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.
        The picture emerging from the review ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates is one of supervisors who failed to heed their own warnings about an officer ill-suited to be an Army psychiatrist, according to information gathered during the internal Pentagon investigation and obtained by The Associated Press. The review has not been publicly released.
        Hasan, 39, is accused of murdering 13 people on Nov. 5 at Fort Hood, the worst killing spree on a U.S. military base.
        What remains unclear is why Hasan would be advanced in spite of all the worries over his competence. That is likely to be the subject of a more detailed accounting by the department. Recent statistics show the Army rarely blocks junior officers from promotion, especially in the medical corps.
        In telling episodes from the latter stages of Hasan's lengthy medical education in the Washington, D.C., area, he gave a class presentation questioning whether the U.S.-led war on terror was actually a war on Islam. And fellow students said he suggested that Shariah (shah-REE'-yuh), or Islamic law, trumped the Constitution and he attempted to justify suicide bombings.
        Yet no one in Hasan's chain of command appears to have challenged his eligibility to hold a secret security clearance even though they could have because the statements raised doubt about his loyalty to the United States. Had they, Hasan's fitness to serve as an Army officer may have been called into question long before he reported to Fort Hood.
The Hasan case was in the back of my mind when I questioned whether the 1500 Muslim officers in the New York Police Department were properly screened (New York Celebrates Diversity in its Police Department). We are all threatened by the secular enshrinement of diversity as the highest virtue by the liberal elite, and its enforcement device, political correctness.

•   •   •  

Myleene Klass warned by police after scaring off intruders with knife   [1/11/10]
Last year I wrote about the UK's nutty campaign against "the scourge of knife crime" (As Immigrant Crime Rises In Britain, The UK Government Is Trying To Ban Not Guns, But Knives). Because after the government had removed firearms from the hands of the citizens, violent crime did not miraculously disappear, so now knives are targeted by the nanny state. And in today's Britain, normal self-defense by law-abiding citizens against criminals is not permitted.
    In the current item, a woman attempting to protect her home and toddler by brandishing a knife against some threatening young males was told by police that she acted illegally.

    Miss Klass, a model for Marks & Spencer and a former singer with the pop group Hear'Say, was in her kitchen in the early hours of Friday when she saw two teenagers behaving suspiciously in her garden.
        The youths approached the kitchen window, before attempting to break into her garden shed, prompting Miss Klass to wave a kitchen knife to scare them away.
        Miss Klass, 31, who was alone in her house in Potters Bar, Herts, with her two-year-old daughter, Ava, called the police. When they arrived at her house they informed her that she should not have used a knife to scare off the youths because carrying an "offensive weapon" even in her own home was illegal.
What kind of psychotic liberalism is so in love with criminals and pacificism that it denies the basic right of self-defense in a person's own home?

•   •   •  

Willie's World   [1/10/10]
San Francisco's former mayor Wille Brown writes a semi-regular column for the Chronicle on Sundays, mostly chatting about political gossip and deluxe parties he has attended. Below is an item from today.

    You think San Francisco is diverse? We've got nothing compared to New York.
        Chinatown powerhouse Rose Pak told me over lunch at North Beach restaurant that she was in New York the other day, took a mile-and-a-half walk down Fifth Avenue and heard just two people speaking English.

•   •   •  

David Cameron: net immigration will be capped at tens of thousands   [1/10/10]
In the UK, the conservative candidate for Prime Minister in the upcoming election, David Cameron, is talking about numerical limits for immigration. Naming specific numbers of immigrants at all is something of a breakthrough for a western politician near a top leadership position.

    Saying he opposed a rise in immigration which would take the population above 70 million, Mr Cameron said that limits needed to be imposed to ensure public services did not become overwhelmed.
        He said: "In a country like Britain you're going to have large numbers of people going and living abroad every year and working abroad, and also large numbers of people coming in. It seems to me what matters is the net figure.
        "In the last decade, net immigration in some years has been sort of 200,000, so implying a 2 million increase over a decade, which I think is too much. [...]
        Reducing immigration to levels seen under the last Conservative government would mean around 50,000 more arrivals than departures a year.
        In recent years, the Tories have shied away from putting the issue of immigration at the centre of the party's election campaigning, for fear of appearing as the "nasty party".
        But Conservative chiefs are said to feel that voters are now keen to hear more about limiting the numbers arriving from overseas.
Britain is a tiny place and is rapidly becoming impossibly overcrowded due to immigration: British population to pass 70 million, forecasts Migrationwatch.
    Official forecasts predict the population, currently at around 61 million, will pass the landmark figure by 2028 and around 70 per cent of that will be due to immigration.
        Last year, Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, said net immigration would have to be cut by 80 per cent if the Government wants to keep the population below 70 million - thought to be a sustainable level.
And while the numbers alone indicate a severe curtailment of immigration, the unfriendly nature of one immigrant group in Britain also demands less of a bad thing: Britons are suspicious towards Muslims, study finds.
    More than half the population would be strongly opposed to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood, the study found.
        A large proportion of the country believes that the multicultural experiment has failed, with 52 per cent considering that Britain is deeply divided along religious lines and 45 per cent saying that religious diversity has had a negative impact.

•   •   •  

Mukasey's Take on Terror Trial   [1/09/10]
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey appeared on Fox News on Saturday and described the many problems with the current administration's legalist approach to terror. He was particularly appalled that Obama wants to do plea bargains with terrorists, rather than gather intelligence as the first priority.
    One disturbing possibility Mukasey mentioned is that Gitmo terrorists transferred to Illinois might later be released into this country after a successful habeas petition if no foreign country would be willing to take them. This dangerous future is the result when the government gives citizen rights to foreign enemy combatants. Our national security should not be in the hands of judges or the ACLU.

For more, see Michael Mukasey's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, What Does the Detroit Bomber Know?.

    Had Abdulmutallab been turned over immediately to interrogators intent on gathering intelligence, valuable facts could have been gathered and perhaps acted upon. Indeed, a White House spokesman has confirmed that Abdulmutallab did disclose some actionable intelligence before he fell silent on advice of counsel. Nor is it any comfort to be told, as we were, by the senior intelligence adviser referred to above -- he of the "no smoking gun" -- that we can learn facts from Abdulmutallab as part of a plea bargaining process in connection with his prosecution.
        Whatever that official thinks he knows about the plea bargaining process, he certainly should know that the kind of facts that Abdulmutallab might be expected to know have a shelf life that is a lot shorter than the plea bargaining process, assuming such a process ever gets started.
Mukasey was a serious public servant in a position that has become more and more politicized (from Bush's Mexophilic pal Alberto Gonzalez to Obama's creature of the far left Eric Holder). When new on the job of Attorney General, Mukasey spoke honestly about his first briefings about national security threats, describing them as "way beyond anything that I knew or believed."

•   •   •  

An open door for migrants to work on Olympics (while 20,000 British builders are laid off)   [1/09/10]
The London Olympics doesn't occur until 2012, yet British elites already intend to screw the many unemployed homegrown workers.
    It's all too familiar...

    A scheme to relax immigration laws to allow tens of thousands of unskilled workers to enter the country to build Olympic sites is being drawn up for ministers.
        Migrant workers may be needed to complete the stadiums for the 2012 Games and also to work on separate engineering projects, Government advisers believe.
        But the prospect of a new wave of immigration for construction schemes - at a time when the recession has seen nearly 200,000 construction workers laid off in the past year - provoked furious protests last night. [...]
        Latest unemployment figures show that 187,000 jobs have been lost in construction in the past year as unemployment hit nearly 2.5million.
        There are 70,000 unemployed adults in the seven East London boroughs closest to the Olympic sites.
        Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, said: 'Has anybody told the Government's advisers we have unemployment of 2.5million and a serious skills shortage which people need to be trained to fill?
        'Permitting employers to recruit immigrant labour off the shelf can only reduce the prospects for British workers.'

•   •   •  

Police warn of terrorism threat behind illegal immigrant issue   [1/09/10]
The good news: police understand the danger of terrorists entering through open borders. The bad news: the cops are in Indonesia.

    The National Police has found early indications that might link the current influx of foreign immigrants, who enter this country illegally, with terrorism, chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said Tuesday.
        "We received early intelligence information that shows these immigrants might be followed by those who share a relationship with some terrorist organizations," Ito said.
        "As of now, I have to acknowledge we are still in the dark about the backgrounds of these immigrants, especially those from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka," he said.

•   •   •  

Italy hit by race riots after immigrants shot and wounded   [1/08/10]
Here's another sad example of why the whole diversity-is-the-highest-good thing is total BS. Human beings are hard-wired to prefer the company of their own tribe, and happy-talk gibberish to the contrary doesn't work. As sociologist Robert Putnam has observed, "Diversity decreases trust."
    This recent conflict took place in Italy, started by a couple of local kids shooting some Africans (most foreign workers are illegal, it appears) with air rifles. Rioting has followed for a couple days. Such is the effect of multicultural immigration. Despite decades of pro-diversity propaganda in Europe and America, human nature remains the same as it ever was.

    Immigrants in southern Italy clashed with police after they were attacked by white Italian youths with air guns.
        Dozens took to the street in the town of Rosarno, Calabria, smashing car windows and setting fire to vehicles and trash cans.
        Police said that a car was attacked while passengers were inside and several people were injured. A total of 32 people, including 18 policemen, were injured in the rioting which began on Thursday.

The video here is interesting because it has some local reaction.

The Daily Mail has some interesting photos in its story, Immigrant riot in Italy leaves 37 injured after series of beatings by white youths.

    Authorities reporting at least 37 were wounded in the ensuing clashes, including 18 police officers and five migrants, as the violence reached its second day in the coastal town of Rosarno in Calabria.
Below, an African man argued with an Italian woman during the conflict.


Illegal alien Africans tore up the town of Rosarno in their two days of rioting.


•   •   •  

Liberian teen charged in rape released to parents   [1/08/10]
In July, four Liberian boys aged 9-14 allegedly gang raped an eight-year-old Liberian girl after luring her with the promise of chewing gum. The oldest boy was arraigned in August.

    A 13-year-old Liberian boy charged in the reported gang-rape of an 8-year-old girl in Phoenix was released from custody Thursday and turned over to his parents as he continues lessons designed to make him competent to stand trial.
        The boy, whom The Associated Press is not naming because of his age, has made progress in his lessons to understand the charges against him and how the justice system works, Maricopa County juvenile Judge Shellie Smith said in court.
        The teen sat shackled in the courtroom and said only, "I want to go home."
        His parents sat by his side.
        "I want my son home," said his father. "We can keep our eyes on him."
Right, the parents have done such a swell job of raising him so far.
    As a footnote, keep in mind that even New York Times liberal Nicholas Kristoff says that gang rape has become pretty normal in Liberia: After Wars, Mass Rapes Persist.
    Another indicator of Liberian society's attitude toward women: individual rape was legal until 2006. (Only gang rape was illegal up to that point.)

•   •   •  

Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs Discuss Immigration Reform - 01/07/10   [1/07/10]
This is sickening. Two pseudo-conservatives arguing over how massive an amnesty should be enacted. No mention of 15 million unemployed citizens, no mention that the voters don't want an amnesty in this economy, no mention of the psychological effect of rewarding lawbreakers and how deleterious it would be for American law and sovereignty.

How quickly memories fade. In 2007, Lou Dobbs interviewed Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation about the taxpayer burden within that year's amnesty bill: Robert Rector on the Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants.

See also Rector's paper from 2007, Amnesty Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers at Least $2.6 Trillion.

Also of interest is Robert Rector's 6/23/07 appearance on C-Span's Washington Journal show which is 35 minutes in length: Economic Impact of Immigration.

•   •   •  

Witch-doctors reveal extent of child sacrifice in Uganda   [1/07/10]
Diversity ideology posits that all cultures are morally equal. Its continued credibility depends upon a constant stream of media puff pieces in favor of multiculturalism, while ignoring the shadow side of human nature. Occasionally, elite media (the BBC in this case) investigate rough societies in the third world, and always seem surprised at the horrors they find.

    A BBC investigation into human sacrifice in Uganda has heard first-hand accounts which suggest ritual killings of children may be more common than authorities have acknowledged.
        One witch-doctor led us to his secret shrine and said he had clients who regularly captured children and brought their blood and body parts to be consumed by spirits.
        Meanwhile, a former witch-doctor who now campaigns to end child sacrifice confessed for the first time to having murdered about 70 people, including his own son.
        The Ugandan government told us that human sacrifice is on the increase, and according to the head of the country's Anti-Human Sacrifice Taskforce the crime is directly linked to rising levels of development and prosperity, and an increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly.
Oops, that last item refutes the widely held idea that rising prosperity is altogether positive. Perhaps not entirely.

The normal horror of witchcraft practicioners is unimaginable.

    Former witch-doctor turned anti-sacrifice campaigner Polino Angela says he has persuaded 2,400 other witch-doctors to give up the trade since he himself repented in 1990.
        Mr Angela told us he had first been initiated as a witch-doctor at a ceremony in neighbouring Kenya, where a boy of about 13 was sacrificed.
        "The child was cut with a knife on the neck and the entire length from the neck down was ripped open, and then the open part was put on me," he said.
Below, the genitals of three-year-old Mukisa were hacked off to be used in witchcraft. His parents are concerned with what kind of life he will have.


The BBC also includes a slideshow: In pictures: Child sacrifice in Uganda.

•   •   •  

SAUDI ARABIA: 'Polygamy for women' article sparks public row in Egypt, Muslim world   [1/07/10]
In America, we have a saying, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" meaning that there should not be different standards for men and women. Apparently there is no parallel aphorism in dar al-Islam, judging by a recent controversy where a Muslim woman suggested that her gender should be able to enjoy multiple marriage partners like men do.

    "Allow me to choose four, five or even nine men, just as my wildest imagination shall choose. I'll pick them with different shapes and sizes, one of them will be dark and the other will be blond. ... [T]hey will be chosen from different backgrounds, religions, races and nations."
        So reads the first paragraph of Saudi journalist Nadine Bedair's controversial article,recently published in the Egyptian independent daily Al Masry Al Youm, that raised the question of why only men are allowed to practice polygamy in Islam but not women.
        As expected, the daring article, entitled "My Four Husbands and I," has stirred the pot among various groups.
        Comments and criticism on the article continue to trickle in at a steady pace nearly a month after its publication, especially in Egypt, from where it originated. There, some Muslim authorities and lawmakers have attacked Bedair, condemning her writings as inflammatory and sexually provocative.
        One of those who reacted with fury to her reflections on the alleged unfairness of polygamy in Islam was Sheikh Mohamed Gama'i. He lashed out at the Saudi journalist in an article published on an Egyptian news site, saying that "no woman has the right to attack our traditions in this manner" and said that Bedair ought to be "stopped."
Islam has no tradition of or respect for free speech (as has been underlined in the recent attack on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard). Furthermore, the idea that a mere woman would criticize Islam at all infuriates many Muslim males. Their societies may be human cesspools of corruption, but men still rule as autocrats over women in countries like Saudi Arabia, so they like gender inequality just fine.


•   •   •  

'I fear for my grandchildren' says former Archbishop of Canterbury, as he calls for Christian values to be defended   [1/07/10]
Another nervous voice from the UK warning about a Muslified future...

    The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey yesterday warned that Britain will be in deep trouble if it does not cut immigration and stand up for its Christian values.
        He called for a dramatic reduction in migrant numbers and insisted those who want to enter the UK should be made to understand its Christian heritage.
        Lord Carey said: We Christians are very often so soft that we allow other people to walk over us and we are not as tough in what we want, in expressing our beliefs, because we do not want to upset other people.
Similarly, the poet Robert Frost once described a liberal as a "man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel." It's not a good quality to have when facing political Islam.

•   •   •  

Driver who caused retired postman's death in Walker is sent to prison   [1/06/10]
In December, I reported on the preventable death of Leonard Dykstra (pictured), a Michigan grandfather who was killed after dinner with his family by a drunk-driving illegal alien. His killer was sentenced recently according to the wishes of his son.

    GRAND RAPIDS -- Months after 80-year-old Leonard Dykstra was killed in a drunken driving crash, his son Brian Dykstra asked a judge to sentence the culprit, Efrain Garcia-Miron, to five years in prison.
        That's just what Kent County Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan did Tuesday, sentencing the 33-year-old illegal immigrant to between five and 15 years in prison for drunken driving causing the death of Dykstra, a retired postman.
        After serving his prison term, Garcia-Miron will be deported to Mexico.

•   •   •  

Police May Scrap Entrance Exam: Report   [1/06/10]
Chicago has a history of creativity in avoiding responsibility, so today's item is not too surprising. The strategy is clearly designed to end the clash between diversity and competence by removing the standards that define fitness.
    Problem solved -- Chicago style!

    The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam, sources tell Fran Spielman.
        Dropping the exam would bolster minority hiring and avert legal battles, according to one source, while others confirm that the exam could be scrapped to open the process to as many people as possible.
        However, the lack of an exam would make Chicago the lone major city without one, and experts contend that the exam is integral to eliminating unqualified applicants.
        The CPD has tried in recent years to boost minority hiring by offering the police exam online and turning to minority clergy to help in the recruitment effort.
        But those efforts have met with frustration. Despite seeing an increase in the number of minority applicants in 2006, the last year the exam was offered, the online component was never launched.
        And as of last year, one in four patrol officers were African-American, but just one in 12 Lieutenants were of color.
Floating in the background is the Supreme Court decision from last June in favor of fair testing: High court backs firefighters in reverse discrimination suit.
    The U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with white firefighters in a workplace discrimination lawsuit, a divisive case over the role race should play in job advancement.
        In the split 5-4 vote, a majority of the justices ruled that the city of New Haven, Connecticut, improperly threw out the results of promotional exams that officials said left too few minorities qualified.

•   •   •  

Father Bascio on the immorality of illegal immigration   [1/06/10]
In this clip, the author of On The Immorality of Illegal Immigration explains how a visit to his old parish in Harlem reversed his opinion of open borders. Friends took him on a tour, where he saw how cheap foreign labor had literally changed the face of the iconic black neighborhood. As Father Pat remarks, "In all these shops the kids were taking me to, I hardly saw one black man." The reason was that illegal foreign workers had taken jobs that had earlier been filled by African-American citizens. At the point of his self-described epiphany, he began to realize that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

See also my VDARE.com article about Father Pat, A Rare (?) Immigration Enforcement Voice In The Catholic Clergy.

•   •   •  

Anger Over Wootton Bassett Protest March   [1/06/10]
Here's more from European media about the provocation/march planned by Islamist creep Anjem Choudary and his Islam4UK gang to undermine British society with totalitarian Islam. (See my blog, Immigration Brings the War Home to Britain.)

Meanwhile the Facebook page opposing the Muslim march has reached well over half a million members in just a few days. It's very encouraging that the British people finally appear to be awakening from their PC fog. Two years ago, I wrote Britain: Where Are the Minutemen... Er, Home Guard?; recent events have lessened my despair.

•   •   •  

Costly case raises issues of immigration, health care   [1/05/10]
This is the kind of report that causes immediate throbbing headaches. It's bad enough that taxpayers are forced to pay for healthcare for illegal aliens, but the way the system is structured invites abuse.

    For Jeanne d'Arc Kayembe, the trip to Washington in May 2007 was meant to be a month-long respite from an abusive boyfriend and a chance to visit relatives before going home to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to have her first child.
        But searing abdominal pains sent Kayembe, who was six months pregnant, to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. After relieving her pain, a doctor told her to stay in bed and not return to Kinshasa until after she had delivered her baby.
        The Shady Grove emergency room was the entry point for Kayembe, who spoke almost no English and had little money, to a foreign medical system that was, by turns, both frightening and surprisingly welcoming.
        Kayembe gave birth at Shady Grove to a very sick son, Don Emmanuel, who eventually got more than $1 million worth of care, mostly at Children's National Medical Center. U.S. taxpayers and the hospitals footed the bill.
        In some ways, Kayembe and her son are at the white-hot intersection of immigration and health care. But Kayembe's case doesn't fit neatly into those political and policy battles, which often focus on undocumented immigrants. An employee of Congo's telecommunications agency, she came to the U.S. legally, on a tourist visa. And because her son was born here, he became a U.S. citizen and thus was entitled to Medicaid, like any poor child.
I have strong suspicions that Congo Mom planned her visit to drop a jackpot baby. Her advanced age of 39 for a presumably first-time mom is very curious in particular. But say she was innocent of plotting citizenship theft and the story is truthfully presented, then the immigration-asylum-medical complex practically kidnapped her by providing free-to-her healthcare plus social benefits that were too generous to refuse. The story hints that doctors told her the kid needed first-world medical care to survive, and she would be a bad mother to take him home to Congo.
    As the debate ensues, legal and undocumented immigrants continue to show up in emergency rooms, where hospitals are required by federal law to treat and stabilize them. In Kayembe's case, medical staff helped in crucial ways that went far beyond health issues.
That's right, the hospital guided Congo Mom into the welfare system that hooked her up with lawyers to solve her immigration issues and with social workers to get an array of free stuff so she could stay in America on the back of the taxpayer. Read the whole article: it's a cautionary tale of do-gooders on steroids.
    In addition, word gets around. Presuming that Obamacare gets passed with no identification required for treatment, there could likely be an uptick (or perhaps a tsunami) in the rush to American hospitals, which exists already.
    Children's is known as a place where legal and illegal immigrants, as well as American citizens with little money, can bring their children for top-notch care. In some cases, parents from other countries bring kids to the emergency room directly from the airport, hospital administrators say.
        But that comes at a price. Children's, like many other hospitals, doesn't keep track of how much uncompensated care they provide to noncitizens, documented or undocumented, but they said it is significant. The hospital once spent $3 million treating an illegal immigrant child with leukemia, officials say.
Once again, liberal institutions (like hospitals) are infinitely generous with other people's money.

•   •   •  

New US flight checks 'discriminate against Nigeria'   [1/05/10]
Sensitive Nigerians are complaining of hurt feelings about their inclusion in the alleged uptick of airport security and how it reflects badly on their nation. One of their arguments is that Nigeria is not home to Islamic extremism -- but in fact, lots of jihad activity occurs there.

    Nigeria, home of the failed US plane bomber, Monday branded new security measures for passengers flying to the United States unfair and said they amounted to discrimination against its 150 million people.
        The US government announced that travellers from 14 countries, including Nigeria, are to be subjected to extra checks including body pat-downs after a young Nigerian was accused of trying to blow up a US jet on Christmas Day.
        But Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili said that Africa's most populous nation did not have a history of terrorism and such a move could not be justified.
        "It is unfair to include Nigeria on the US list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not have terrorist tendencies," Akunyili told journalists.
        "It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behaviour of one person," said the minister.
In fact, Nigeria is home to plenty of religious violence as a result of Muslims trying to enforce sharia law on unwilling Christians. One point of conflict is the desire of non-Muslims to drink beer, and Nigerians have been killed in the occasional outbreaks over alcohol and other religious differences.

Here's a Tube from last August: sharia law of islam in Nigeria Africa

For more on the unrest last summer, see Nigerian Islamist attacks spread (BBC, 7/27/09).

    Dozens of people have been killed after Islamist militants staged three attacks in northern Nigeria, taking the total killed in two days of violence to 150.
        A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes.
        Witnesses told the BBC a gun battle raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State and a police station was set on fire.
        Some of the militants follow a preacher who campaigns against Western schools.
Nigerian spinmeisters try to portray their country as being home to moderate Muslims with no history of jihadism, but the facts indicate otherwise.

•   •   •  

Many roosters seized in cockfight raid will be euthanized, official says   [1/04/10]
Police busted a big cockfight a couple days ago west of Fort Worth, and now we learn that over one hundred of those arrested are illegal aliens.

    Many of the 176 people arrested at a weekend cockfight in Parker County paid fines, but others still face charges that range from gambling to animal cruelty, authorities said Sunday. [...]
        More than 100 of those arrested were illegal immigrants, Fowler said Sunday.

•   •   •  

From Around the Globe, Serving New York   [1/04/10]
The New York Times is the Energizer Bunny of promoting extreme diversity, and today's collection of puffery featuring immigrant officers of the NYPD does not disappoint. No possible negative is mentioned because the very idea is anathema, since in multicultural America, diversity is the highest good.

    The New York Police Department has sent its officers to 11 cities around the globe - even once dispatching a husband and wife to Abu Dhabi. But the return from the world has been far greater.
        Of the 5,593 officers hired since July 2006, when the department began tracking the nationalities of police officers, 1,042 of them were foreign-born - hailing from 88 countries, according to department records.
        The Dominican Republic leads the way, with 263 officers born there. The list also includes nations that would have been well represented two generations ago: Italy, Ireland and Germany, for example. But those three countries account for a total of only eight officers, far surpassed by those born in Haiti, 78; Jamaica, 59; Pakistan, 29; and Russia, 18.
        The department has made a concerted effort to become more diverse: Recruitment advertisements are now routinely placed in foreign-language newspapers, and new recruits are categorized by their potential to be trained for certain assignments - like counterterrorism or community affairs based on their language, culture or place of birth, something Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly refers to as "selective certification."
"Selective certification" sounds suspiciously like lowered standards. But when diversity is the goal, values like competence tend to suffer.
    It has all worked to shatter past notions of a police force made up mostly of white men of European descent who followed their fathers and grandfathers onto the job.
        That, Mr. Kelly said, "has changed dramatically, and it has changed for the better. As the city has become more diverse, the department has become, I believe, the most diverse police department in the world and we're proud of it, and we want to continue to maintain our diversity. It's good for policing; it makes us a more effective organization."
Funny, I always thought multigenerational cop families had extra pride in their profession because it was interwoven with kinship connections. That family value is dismissed also in the rush to diversity.
    The department's newest class of rookies underscores the trend.
        Of the 250 new officers who graduated last Monday, 65 of them were foreign-born, hailing from 23 countries, the police said. Those officers spoke a total of 28 different languages, including Bengali, Punjabi, Yoruba and Creole.
The item above is the general article; also part of the package are three upbeat portraits of individual officers, including Detective Ahmed Nasser, Yemen.
    Ahmed Nasser was a young recruit in March 2000, one of three people of Arab descent in his Police Academy class, he recalled, and one of about 20 in the entire department.
        At times, his culture could feel singular to him. He recalled his first assignment, in Brooklyn's 76th Precinct, and how he spent quiet moments on lunch breaks bowing toward Mecca and praying in a training room in the police station house.
        "I pray for understanding," he said, recalling his daily ritual.
        Today, there are about 1,500 Muslim officers in the department, said Mr. Nasser, now a detective. Their roots run through the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. They speak Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Urdu, among other languages.
You have to wonder how thoroughly the 1500 Muslim officers were vetted. And even those who don't have a squirrelly past can catch the jihad bug from the internet these days. Islam is a hugely effective method of mass mind control in part because the five-times-daily prayers mean the tenets of Islam are never far from Muslims' thoughts. There have been many cases of Muslim immigrants who appeared assimilated to America, like Minneapolis-raised Shirwa Ahmed who shot hoops with friends and attended Roosevelt High School's prom, but later blew up himself and 30 others in Mogadishu.
    Even one Muslim NYPD officer acting as a spy could cause a great deal of harm. The case of Ali Mohamed comes to mind. He was an al-Qaeda operative who served as a sergeant in the US Army Special Forces, where he gained valuable intelligence about American tactics. He trained terrorists, including some who took part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

•   •   •  

British Al-Qaeda plot to murder family of sniper soldier   [1/03/10]
Britain remains the poster country for why Muslim immigration is a very dumb idea.
    People complain about war, but at least your enemies are geographically distant rather than residing in your neighborhood. Non-discriminating multicultural immigration has imported many thousands of hostiles from the West's most intractable historical opponent. As a result, the war has been brought home to Britain.

    British-based al-Qaeda fanatics threatened to kill a soldier's family after learning his sniper team had killed 32 Taliban.
        Armed police were sent to his home after anti-terrorism officers uncovered the plot to murder his parents.
        The plans came to light when the security services monitored "chatter" - believed to be on mobile phones or the internet - between al-Qaeda extremists.
        It is the second time a soldier or his loved ones are known to have been targeted in the UK by groups linked to al-Qaeda. The chilling threats came after the serviceman was praised in reports in the media for his skills during a tour in Afghanistan.
        The soldier, in his 20s and from Scotland, is a "spotter" who has been working alongside a crack marksman in one of the Army's highly-skilled twoman sniper teams. He and his colleague were hailed heroes for gunning down 32 Taliban fighters in Helmand Province. The Sunday Mirror is not identifying him for his and his family's safety.
        Police investigating the threats were sent to his home fearing al-Qaeda sympathisers were on the verge of brutally attacking his relatives in twisted retaliation for his military service. [...]
        The revelation follows a plot by an al-Qaeda cell in Birmingham to kidnap a soldier and behead him on the internet in 2007.
In other Muslified Britain news, the Islam4UK fifth column are stirring up trouble again, after demanding Sharia be made the law of the land a couple months back. Now provocateur Anjem Choudary and his crew are planning a march against British soldiers in a town that is known for its old-fashioned patriotism toward the military.

Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary vows to continue Wootton Bassett march

    The controversial cleric, who heads up Islam4UK, has organised a march of 500 people through the Wiltshire town, in memory of Muslims "murdered in the name of democracy and freedom".
        Wootton Bassett has become the main focal point for the nation to show its respect to the troops killed in Afghanistan, with hundreds lining the streets each time a body is repatriated to nearby RAF Lyneham.
        But Choudary said it was unacceptable to honour those killed in the conflict and he would march through the town with supporters to voice opposition at the gatherings.
        Asked why he was against crowds honouring fallen British soldiers, he said: "The same could be said about the Germans fighting for Nazism in the Second World War. Those involved in 7/7 and 9/11 considered themselves to be soldiers.

There is plenty of outrage among the English people about the latest escalation. In fact, there is a Facebook page in opposition to the Muslim march with over 152,000 members as of today.

As Parapundit (Randall Parker) has remarked, "Muslims are nature's way of telling us that multiculturalism is a really bad idea." Yes, and double ditto that for Muslim immigration.

•   •   •  

Cartoonist intruder: 'links to Islamic terrorists'   [1/02/10]
What a surprise. The Somali who tried to murder Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is linked to bigger jihadid groups.

    An intruder who was shot and wounded by police after breaking into the Denmark home of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has links to Islamic terrorists, according to Danish intelligence.
        The 28-year-old Somali man is connected to the radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, claims Denmark's PET intelligence service.
        Police say the intruder entered the property by smashing a window and was carrying a knife and axe. He has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after a court hearing today in Aarhus, Denmark. The 74-year-old, whose cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad sparked riots five years ago, has had numerous threats on his life and his house in Viby, near Aarhus, is heavily fortified with security modifications.
Below, a report from Sky News about the arrest...

Kurt Westergaard cannot stop sharia alone

Columnist Diana West salutes the courage of the Danish cartoonist while she condemns the cowardice of the American press for refusing to actually show the Mohammed cartoons on the occasion of Westergaard's speaking tour in 2009.

    Surprise, surprise, the Westergaard cartoon didn't see media light of day during Kurts entire trip. American media disgraced themselves by covering Westergaard, his cartoon, the threats to his life, the barbarous Islamic reaction from the highest reaches of the Islamic diplomatic world to the Islamic street protests that resulted in loss of life, Kurt's principles, free speech - all without ever showing readers and viewers the cartoon itself. (One exception - the Chicago Sun Times, which ran a photo of Kurt holding a laptop displaying the cartoon.)
See also my 2007 blog excoriating the San Francisco Chronicle for its weak response regarding the 'toons: An MSM Celebration of Free Speech!


•   •   •  

Poverty growing in Texas schools   [1/02/10]
Why is there so little interest in the accumulating poverty that is the result of open borders and permissive immigration? How many high-school dropouts does America need? The country requires more educated people who can support the economy rather than a permanent underclass of hostile Mexicans.
    The statistics from Texas schools are ugly.

    Almost six out of 10 Texas public schoolchildren hail from low-income families, marking a troubling spike in poverty over the last decade, a new state report shows.
        The increase coincides with a significant jump in the number of Hispanic students, while fewer Anglo students were enrolled last year than 10 years ago, according to the study by the Texas Education Agency. Schools also are educating many more children whose primary language is not English.
        The rapidly changing makeup of the Texas public school classroom poses growing challenges for the state. Impoverished and disadvantaged children are more likely to falter academically and drop out, and educating struggling students can be costly.
        "Economically disadvantaged students have needs," said Sarah Winkler, the president of the Texas Association of School Boards and an Alief school board trustee. "The cost of education is going to go up. Every student has to meet the same standards, and some of those students have never seen a book before." [...]
        The vast majority of the new students in Texas come from low-income families. Last year, poor children made up nearly 57 percent of the state's enrollment, up from 48 percent in the 1998-99 academic year. Many Houston-area school districts serve even larger percentages of impoverished children. [...]
        The racial and ethnic mix of the state's public schools also has changed dramatically in 10 years. Enrollment increased except for Anglos and blacks. The number of Hispanic students surpassed Anglos for the first time in the 2001-02 school year.
        Last year, Hispanics made up nearly 48 percent of the enrollment, followed by whites (34 percent), blacks (14 percent) and Asians (4 percent). Nearly 17 percent of students had limited English-speaking skills.


•   •   •  

Axe-wielding man shot and wounded trying to enter home of Danish 'Mohammed' cartoonist   [1/01/10]
Kurt Westergaard is a free-speech hero for standing up to Muslim bullies after drawing a controversial cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. Because of his artistic integrity, he needs 24/7 police protection and his house has special security features, including steel doors and a panic room.

    Danish police have shot a man trying to enter the house of a controversial cartoonist armed with an axe.
        A 27-year-old was wounded in the incident at the Aarhus home of Kurt Westergaard, who drew cartoons of Islam's prophet Mohammed.
        "At 10pm this evening, a personal alarm was received from Mr Westergaard's house," chief superintendant Morten Jensen, from East Jutland police, said.
        Officers found a 27-year-old Somalian man "armed with an axe and a knife in either hand".
        Chief superintendant Jensen said: "He broke a window of Mr Westergarrds house. He tried to attack one officer with an axe and he was shot in his right leg and his left arm.
        "He's not seriously injured, he's in custody," he added.
        Westergaard was one of the 12 cartoonists commissioned by the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005 to produce caricatures of the Muslim prophet.
        Islamic tradition says no image of him should be produced or shown.
        Muslims were particularly incensed by Westergaard's cartoon, which portrayed Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and was seen as extending the caricature of Muslims as terrorists. The images sparked protests and outrage across the globe.
Muslims want to kill because Islam is portrayed as a violent religion. You can't make this stuff up.

The AP article had more details about the terrifying nature of the attack: Official: Danish police stop attack on cartoonist.

    Westergaard, who had his 5-year-old granddaughter on a sleepover, called police and sought shelter in a specially made safe room in the house, Nielsen said. Police arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant, who wielded an ax at a police officer. The officer then shot the man.
        Westergaard could not be reached for comment. He told his employer, the Jyllands-Posten daily, that the assailant shouted "revenge" and "blood" as he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought shelter.
        "My grandchild did fine," Westergaard said, according to the newspaper's Web edition. "It was scary. It was close. Really close. But we did it."

It's not a bad time to review a CBN news segment that explains the long-term goal of Islam to criminalize dissent against the "religion", Freedom of Speech Against Islam Being Silenced in Europe.

•   •   •  

NY's haul of the wild   [1/01/10]
Traditional Chinese medicine is known for using an amazing variety of living things. One indication is the diversity of flora and fauna that are illegally smuggled through New York City into America, nearly all headed for the various Chinatowns. As a result, the dozen inspectors for the US Fish and Wildlife Service have their hands full at the local airports to interdict unlawful cargos.
    The photo at right is of a cobra pickled in rice wine, said to have health benefits, that came from Thailand.

    Pickled cobra that "cures" kidney problems. Chinese Viagra made with deer penis. Balms filled with powdered tiger bone. Bushels of bushmeat.
        These are just a few of the exotic and unlawful imports that pour into New York City daily.
        And when the black-market booty is not seized by federal agents at airports, they can be found on the shelves of China town apothecaries, Bronx botanicas or swap meets in ethnic neighborhoods throughout the city. [...]
        A Post interpreter was told recently in Chinatown that he could buy bear gall bladder to clean his blood, and deer penis to improve his sexual prowess.
        Inspectors say many strange objects are used in so-called traditional Chinese medicines -- thought to cure everything from a toothache to cancer.
        Onda said the Chinese use "medicine mules" like other cultures use "drug mules" -- smuggling into the country thousands of hidden pills containing ground-up tiger and leopard bone.
        "If they get it by us they mule it into Chinatown," he said.
        This month, a Liberian-born Staten Island woman, Mamie Manneh, was sentenced to three years probation for smuggling 65 pieces of African bushmeat from illegally poached wild animals. [See blogs about the Liberian monkey meat smuggler.]
        Because the laws that govern trade in wildlife make it illegal to import some objects but legal to sell them once they're in the country, City Hall passed a law in 2004 making it illegal to sell any products that claim to contain rhino and tiger parts.
Chinese medicine aficionados apparently don't care that their purchases further deplete endangered species, like tigers.
    Chinese eating habits also run toward the exotic, which accounts for China being a petrie dish for infectious diseases, like SARS from a few years back. The civet is blamed for SARS because of the animal's availability in China live food markets.
    In addition, nonhuman primates can carry Ebola and tuberculosis, for example. Public health is another reason to close up the ridiculously porous border.

•   •   •  

Fifty-eight Percent Favor Waterboarding of Plane Terrorist To Get Information   [12/31/09]
A Rasmussen Poll shows that a majority of Americans believe we are at war and terrorists shouldn't get lawyered up or be given all the rights of citizens. Instead, the bad guys should be induced to reveal relevant information -- using more intense means than gentle persuasion if necessary.

    Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.
        A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.
        Men and younger voters are more strongly supportive of the aggressive interrogation techniques than women and those who are older. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor their use more than Democrats.
        Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22% say it should be handled by civilian authorities as a criminal act, as is currently the case.
Polling shows Americans becoming more at odds with the President's "subtler course" to national security.
    Support for closing the Guantanamo facility has been dropping since the president announced it just after taking office, and most voters are now opposed. In August, 75% were at least somewhat concerned that dangerous terrorists would be set free if the Guantanamo prison camp is closed and some prisoners are transferred to other countries.
        Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters oppose the Obama administrations decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City rather than before a military tribunal at Guantanamo. Twenty-nine percent (29%) think the civilian trials are a good idea.
        Most voters also said the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas by a Muslim Army officer should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act rather than by civilian authorities as a criminal act.
        Sixty-three percent (63%) say political correctness prevented the military from responding to warning signs from Major Nidal Malik Hasan that could have prevented the Fort Hood shootings from taking place.
When it comes to protecting the country and its people, citizens want a robust approach and strong leadership. Obama's touchy-feeling strategy has been a complete disaster and is read as weakness by our enemies.

•   •   •  

Too many Asians in Britain, Thatcher complained   [12/31/09]
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher thought that immigrants who could assimilate were more desirable than those who were extremely diverse. Imagine that.

    In July 1979, just months after she became Britain's first female Prime Minister, Thatcher responded angrily when Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington suggested that Britain accept 10,000 Vietnamese boat people over two years.
        An angry Thatcher said there were already too many Asians arriving and that 'with some exceptions, there had been no humanitarian case for accepting 1.5 million from South Asia and elsewhere. It was essential to draw a line somewhere.'
        The secret minutes of the meeting added: 'She thought it wrong immigrants should be given council housing whereas white citizens were not.'
        Told that many people were writing to urge ministers to accept more refugees, Thatcher responded tetchily: 'All those who wrote letters should be invited to accept one into their homes.'
Why would it be "tetchy" of PM Thatcher to suggest that do-gooders who want more refugees take some responsibility for their care?

•   •   •  

Census Bureau Projects U.S. Population of 308.4 Million on New Year's Day   [12/30/09]
They keep coming.

    On the eve of the 2010 Census, as the Census Bureau prepares to conduct an actual count of the nations population, the bureau projects that on Jan. 1, 2010 three months out from Census Day the total U.S. population will be 308,400,408. This would represent an increase of 2,606,181, or 0.9 percent, from New Years Day 2009.
        In January 2010, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.
        Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person every 37 seconds to the U.S. population in January 2010, resulting in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 14 seconds.
At a growth rate of .9 per year, the doubling time of the US population is around 78 years, so if that rate of growth continues, in the year 2088 America's population will be 616 million.

•   •   •  

White House prepares for immigration overhaul battle   [12/30/09]
Obie has been breaking campaign promises right and left, so his pledge to amnesty tens of millions of foreign lawbreakers may fall by the wayside along with increased transparency and a crackdown on earmarks. However, I wouldn't count on it because the President's dedication to the far left runs deep.

    In a recent conference call with proponents, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, political director Patrick Gaspard and others delivered the message that the White House was committed to seeing a substantial immigration bill pass and wanted to make sure allies were prepared for the fight.
        In addition to the citizenship provision, the emerging plan will emphasize efforts to secure U.S. borders against those trying to cross illegally. But that two-track approach was rejected repeatedly in the past by Republicans and other critics who insist that a border crackdown must demonstrate its effectiveness before any action on citizenship is considered.
        Whatever proposal Obama puts forward will probably meet equally determined opposition. Another complication is the calendar: Midterm elections are in November, and polls show that the public is more worried about joblessness and the fragile economy than anything else.

•   •   •  

Plane Attack Spooks Public Confidence in War on Terror   [12/30/09]
The American people are losing faith in the kumbaya President's leadership and determination to keep the country safe. Bowing and scraping to dictators doesn't work, nor does naive "outreach" to murderous Muslims.
    Every day brings worse news about system failure (e.g. U.S. Knew of Airline Terror Plot Before Christmas), so survey figures are apt to get worse, from the President's viewpoint.
    From the Rasmussen pollsters...

    Belief that the bad guys are winning the War on Terror is now at its highest level in over two years, and nearly half of U.S. voters say America is not safer than it was before 9/11.
        The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 30% of voters think the terrorists are winning the War on Terror. Thats the first time the number holding that pessimistic view has reached 30% since October 2007.
        Just 18% believed the terrorists were winning the week President Obama took office in January. At that time, 55% said America and its allies were on top. Now, just 36% say the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror. Only once since July 2007 have voters had less confidence.
        Just 27% now say that the United States is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, 47% say it is not, That latter figure marks a nine-point jump from earlier in the month and is the highest negative finding on the question since Rasmussen Reports began surveying on it in 2002. We have been tracking the question monthly since November 2006 and also measured it regularly in 2004 and 2005. Before that, it was asked on an occasional basis.

•   •   •  

Police combat Somali gang concerns   [12/30/09]
Lewiston Maine is a town of only 35,000 residents, but it now contains an "inner city community" -- which apparently means Somali refugees.

    A handful of assaults in Kennedy Park promptedpolice to reevaluate their relationship with members of the inner city community.
        Somali teenagers were identified as the attackers taking advantage of crimes of opportunity against people who were walking alone or were intoxicated, according to police.
        Police and members of the Somali community say those attackers represent a very small group within the whole.
        Officers in the schools work to identify gang development early on and members of the Somali Bantu Youth Association of Maine spend time teaching young immigrants about non-violence.
Maybe the officers explained to the Somali gangster "community" that brutal assaults perpetrated on citizens can lead to hard time in state prison rather than the diversity fairy tale being spun here. (Note how every sentence in the excerpt above either blames the victims or diminishes the violent nature of the crimes.)

•   •   •  

The Trouser Bomber Effect: Watching Government Cure Incompetence with Idiocy   [12/29/09]
Why is no one in the media raking Hilary Clinton over the coals for her State Department's abysmal performance in the underpants bomber case? Forget the noise about TSA and the current wailing about airport security; the guy never should have gotten out of the US embassy with a visa after the father's warning that sonny had gone jihad.

    It is really simple, the American Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria screwed up bigtime. Even a minor consular officer like a grade 6 Foreign Service Officer can understand that, even if no one in the press or the Obama Administration seems to. Unfortunately it appears no minor consular officer ever got their hands on this in Lagos. This screw up was handled by the big guys at the Embassy.
        Once a credible person of the stature of Abdulmutullab's father, multimillionaire Umaru Mutullab, one of the most important figures in banking in all of Africa, contacted the Embassy and said he feared his son had been "radicalized," the Embassy should have immediately reviewed the young man's American multiple entry visa granted to him by the American Embassy in London in 2008 and placed a hold on it pending a hearing. But that's not what happened. According to the Department of State, Umaru had a face to face meeting at the request of high officials in Nigerian Security with top American embassy officials on November 19th. And the records at State show what did happen.
        The Department of State did a cursory derogatory information sweep on Abdulmutullab on November 20th and found nothing. Then on November 23rd The Department of State referred the matter to the Department of Justice which concluded with his being added to the TIDE database. There is no evidence that any attempt was made to contact British authorities where the young man had lived in a 4 million pound flat while on a student visa to the UK. His American visa had been issued in London. If they had, they might have learned the British had already pulled Abdulmutullab's visa last May.
        Apparently no one ever considered the easiest, simplest step to review the multiple entry visa and associated travel records to see if something had changed that might lend credence to the father's concern.
        The visa is not an automatic right for a foreign citizen. An American entry visa is a privilege granted under certain circumstances. Requiring a hearing to consider the new information doesn't require making a final judgment. Maybe this charge was just an outgrowth of some family feud. It simply ensures that new information is analyzed before access is continued. If rumors of Abdulmutullab's trips to Yemen and other terrorist hot spots are true, the evidence for them might have surfaced during the visa review.
The State Department posted a transcript of a 12/28 press briefing, and the first question concerned the visa.
    QUESTION: You know, Ian, there are so many different questions about these this attempted bombing thing, but I think there's one big one that stands out, which is after everything you know, he goes to the Embassy, tells all this stuff about his son, he's put on the watch list. Why wasn't his visa pulled? What is the explanation?
        MR. KELLY: Okay. Well, first of all, let's let me just say at the top that this has become an interagency effort, this whole effort of trying to protect our borders and keep our citizens safe. The State Department role in this of course, the most prominent part of it is the visa issuance part of it. And this individual came in to the U.S. Embassy in London I mean, he was studying in London and applied for a visa and was issued a visa that was good for two years. It was a standard multiple-entry tourist visa.

•   •   •  

Ralph Peters on Christmas Day Terrorist Attack   [12/28/09]
Ralph Peters emphasized how weak America looks to our enemies, particularly because of cowering political correctness regarding Islam.

Update: See also Col. Peters 12/29 op-ed on the same subject, Lying to ourselves.

    We proclaim that the terrorists "don't represent Islam." OK, whom do they represent? The Franciscans? We don't get to decide what's Islam and what isn't. Muslims do. And far too many of them approve of violent jihad.
        It gets worse. Instead of focusing on the religious zeal and inspiration of our enemies and how such motivations change the game, our "terrorism experts" agonize over whether such beasts as Abdulmutallab or Maj. Hasan, the Fort Hood assassin for Allah, are really members of al Qaeda or not.

•   •   •  

U.S. Failed to Catch Suspect's Active Visa   [12/28/09]
Rather than torturing airline passengers still more with additional searches and demeaning inconveniences, national security should begin much further upstream. In particular, the State Department should be held much more accountable for distributing visas to dangerous people.
    And more common sense (dismissed as "profiling" in our politically correct time) would be in order, namely extra scrutiny paid to young Muslim men.

    CBS News has learned the State Department system designed to keep track of active U.S. visas twice failed to reveal Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been issued an active visa allowing him multiple entries into the United States.
        According to a law enforcement source, the first failure came on Nov. 19, 2009, the very same day Abdulmutallab father's, Dr. Umaru Mutallab, a prominent banking official in Nigeria, expressed deep concern to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abjua, Nigeria, that his 23-year-old son had fallen under the influence of "religious extremists" in Yemen.
        The second failure to flag an active visa belonging to Abdulmuttalab occurred the very next day in Washington, after Mutallab's concerns were forwarded to officials there. It was only after the Christmas Day terror attack in Detroit that U.S. officials learned that Abdulmuttalab had been issued a visa by the U.S. Embassy in London valid from June 16, 2008, through June 12, 2010.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

•   •   •  

Domestic Terror Incidents Hit a Peak in 2009   [12/28/09]
The last few days of December are traditionally filled with year-end top ten lists of important stories or best new books, etc. One important tally is the the number of attempted terror attacks in year #1 in the reign of Obama.
    Weren't his efforts in reaching out to Muslims (e.g. his widely celebrated Cairo speech) supposed to quell the 1400-year war of Islam against the West? How about the physical bowing to the Saudi king? That gesture was supposed to demonstrate that America was no longer an oppressor to the Third Worldd, but was another indicator of weakness to the big turban guys.
    The liberal theory that friendly persuasion can dissuade violent jihadists from the killer path hasn't worked out very well as recent events indicate.

    You may not have noticed because most of the plots were foiled, but 2009 saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.
        "There appears to be an increase in [terrorist] activity in the U.S.," warns Jenkins, who calculates that there have been 32 terror-related "events" on these shores since 9/11, and that 12 of those occurred in 2009.
In fact, the election of Obama may well have encouraged jihadists who believe that an Islam-friendly president occupies the White House.

•   •   •  

First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US   [12/27/09]
Public health is one of the many areas of modern life threatened because of permissive immigration policies. There have been warnings of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) appearing in places like Russia, so it was only a matter of time until the disease reached America courtesy of our foreign visitors. Patient #1 of the new plague is a young Peruvian who came to "learn English" (although no college is mentioned).

    It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away.
        Then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled the skinny frame of Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. His lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., Juarez felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood.
        I'm dying, he told himself, "because when you cough blood, it's something really bad."
        It was really bad, and not just for him.
        Doctors say Juarez's incessant hack was a sign of what they have both dreaded and expected for years this country's first case of a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. The Associated Press learned of his case, which until now has not been made public, as part of a six-month look at the soaring global challenge of drug resistance.
        Juarez's strain - so-called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB - has never before been seen in the U.S., according to Dr. David Ashkin, one of the nation's leading experts on tuberculosis. XXDR tuberculosis is so rare that only a handful of other people in the world are thought to have had it.
        "He is really the future," Ashkin said. "This is the new class that people are not really talking too much about. These are the ones we really fear because I'm not sure how we treat them."
This article is slim on details about Oswaldo (like whether he is just a common day laborer) and is strangely chipper in tone considering the topic, but it does have more background information than your average newspaper item. It even contains a mention of the taxpayer cost caused by the immigrant in question -- a rarity.
    His treatment cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $500,000, a price tag medical director Ashkin says seems like an astronomical amount to spend on someone who's not an American citizen. But he questions how the world can afford not to treat Juarez and others sick with similar lethal strains.
If we're in the mood for spending piles of other people's money, why not invest more in border and workplace enforcement? Fewer Oswaldos would be a fine strategy for 21st century public health.

•   •   •  

AP source: US knew of terror suspect   [12/26/09]
More than eight years after the 9/11 terror attacks, law enforcement against Islamic terrorism still has some large holes, for example allowing known jihadists access to American airplanes.

    An official briefed on the attack on a Detroit airliner said Saturday the U.S. has known for at least two years that the suspect in the attack could have terrorist ties.
        The official told The Associated Press that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, has been on a list that includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
        The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. It includes about 550,000 names.
        People on that list are not necessarily on the no-fly list. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said Mutallab was not on the no-fly list.
        King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said no federal air marshals were on the flights from Nigeria to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Detroit. Mutallab did not go through full-body image screening at either airport, the congressman said.
The first line of defense, unfortunately, is the US State Department official in Nigeria who handed a travel visa to a man known to have terrorist affiliations. And there are thousands more in State who don't want to insult anyone in the countries where they are stationed.

It gets worse: Father of terror suspect reported Mutallab to US Embassy 6 months ago.

    The father of the al Qaeda terrorist behind Fridays attempted explosion aboard a Northwest flight bound for Detroit reported his sons fanatical religious views to the U.S. Embassy six months ago, according to a Nigerian news outlet.
        The young man, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, is the son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a former Nigerian minister and bank chairman. He became wary of his sons religious beliefs and reported his activities to the U.S. Embassy as well as Nigerian security services half a year ago, according to the Nigerian newspaper This Day.

•   •   •  

Bing Crosby - White Christmas   [12/25/08]
Bing's rendition of White Christmas is one of my favorites, here from the film Holiday Inn.

•   •   •  

Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [12/24/09]
One-time terrorist prosecuter Andy McCarthy is troubled that the President has used Christmas week to sneak through a policy to undermine American sovereignty.

    You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.
        Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. Byexecutive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also an active law-enforcement agency, so critical privileges and immunities (set forth in Section 2(c) of the International Organizations Immunities Act) were withheld. Specifically, Interpol's property and assets remained subject to search and seizure, and its archived records remained subject to public scrutiny under provisions like the Freedom of Information Act. Being constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans is what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical.
        On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations.That is, Interpol's property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force(whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington)will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States. Interpol works closely with international tribunals (such as the International Criminal Court which the United States has refused to join because of its sovereignty surrendering provisions, though top Obama officials want us in it). It also works closely with foreign courts and law-enforcement authorities (such as those in Europe that are investigating former Bush administration officials for purported war crimes i.e., for actions taken in America's defense).
        Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?

•   •   •  

Passing health reform could be a nightmare for Obama   [12/23/09]
The always thoughtful economic columnist Robert Samuelson includes the immigration aspect in the mess that is the Democrats' healthcare legislation.

    Barack Obama's quest for historic health-care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership. We usually associate presidential leadership with the pursuit of goals that, though initially unpopular, serve America's long-term interests. Obama has reversed this. He's championing increasingly unpopular legislation that threatens the country's long-term interests. "This isn't about me," he likes to say, "I have great health insurance." But of course, it is about him: about the legacy he covets as the president who achieved "universal" health insurance. He'll be disappointed. [...]
        The remaining uninsured may also exceed estimates. Under the Senate bill, they would total 24 million in 2019, reckons Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But a wild card is immigration. From 1999 to 2008, about 60 percent of the increase in the uninsured occurred among Hispanics. That was related to immigrants and their children (many American-born). Most illegal immigrants aren't covered by Obama's proposal. If we don't curb immigration of the poor and unskilled -- people who can't afford insurance -- Obama's program will be less effective and more expensive than estimated. Hardly anyone mentions immigrants' impact, because it seems insensitive.

•   •   •  

Illegal immigrant sentenced in Tulsa fatal bicycle crash   [12/22/09]
The reckless illegal alien who killed Beverly Duffield in Tulsa last summer has been sentenced in a plea deal. She was an amazingly vital 75-year-old bike rider who died after being struck by illegal alien Salvador Alvelais-Torres who ran a stop sign. (See my blog from the time, Cycling Psychologist Run Down by Illegal Alien in Tulsa.)

    A man identified as an illegal immigrant was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for leaving the scene of a fatal accident in Tulsa.
        Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres, 28, pleaded guilty to five counts linked to a hit-and-run crash that claimed the life of bicyclist Beverly Duffield, 74, of Tulsa.
        In accordance with a plea deal, Tulsa County District Judge Tom Gillert sentenced Alvelais-Torres to a seven-year prison term for leaving the scene, a felony.
        Alvelais-Torres received a concurrent one-year jail term which doesn't add to his time in custody for negligent homicide, a misdemeanor.
Seven years seems pretty weak for taking a life, particularly for an illegal alien with a long rap sheet: Suspected Illegal Immigrant Has Criminal History.
    City of Tulsa records show 28-year-old Roberto Alvelais-Torres has been arrested at least twice before this week's arrest. [...]
        Municipal court records show in 2003, Tulsa Police arrested Torres for DUI/Alcohol, Hit & Run, Transporting Beer and No Driver's License. [...]
        However, that wasn't Torres' last run in with Tulsa Police. Records show three years later officers arrested him again on that 2003warrant. Records show The City of Tulsa Court found him guilty and no jail time but Torres paid a $745 fine.
What does it take to get a tough sentence in this country against an illegal alien? Or are long prison terms reserved for citizens only?

•   •   •  

Voters Hopeful About Black-White Relations, Less So About Hispanics   [12/21/09]
Americans don't see Mexicans assimilating, it would seem.

    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 80% of voters think relations between white Americans and black Americans are better today than they were in the 1960s. Just 11% say that isnt so.
        Sixty-two percent (62%) also feel that relations between black and white Americans are getting better. Twenty percent (20%) say that relationship is getting worse, and 11% see it as about the same as it always has been.
        However, just 40% of voters nationwide say relations between white Americans and Hispanics are getting better. Nearly as many (34%) say they are getting worse. Fifteen percent (15%) see no change. [...]
        Voters are even more pessimistic about the relationship between African-Americans and Hispanics.
        Eighteen percent (18%) say it's getting better, but twice as many (36%) say relations between the two are getting worse. Twenty percent (20%) say neither is the case, while another 26% are not sure.
Hispanics, particularly Mexicans remain snarly over requirements that their tribe follow American law.
    A sore point for many Hispanics is the national debate over illegal immigration. By a 70% to 22% margin, voters say that gaining control of the borders is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers already in the country.
        What is often lost in the debate over immigration reform, however, is that once the borders are controlled, most Americans favor a welcoming immigration policy provided it is done within the law. By a 55% to 27% margin, Americans favor a policy goal that would welcome everyone except criminals, national security threats and welfare dependants.
It should be noted that the link Ramussen provides in the paragraph above is from 2006, and the current worsened economy has reduced voter generosity to lawbreakers.

•   •   •  

UK fails to halt female genital mutilation   [12/21/09]
This cruel native practice continues in places of high immigration of cultures that believe in FGM, e.g. Somalis.

    Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts warn the practice continues to flourish across the country. Parents typically take their daughters back to their country of origin for FGM during school holidays, but The Independent on Sunday has been told that "cutters" are being flown to the UK to carry out the mutilation at "parties" involving up to 20 girls to save money.
        The police face growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying out FGM in 25 years; new legislation from 2003 which prohibits taking a girl overseas for FGM has also failed to secure a conviction.
        Experts say the lack of convictions, combined with the Government's failure to invest enough money in education and prevention strategies, mean the practice continues to thrive. Knowledge of the health risks and of the legislation remains patchy among practising communities, while beliefs about the supposed benefits for girls remain firm, according to research by the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (Forward). [...]
        The Somali model Waris Dirie was mutilated at the age of five. She set up the Waris Dirie Foundation in 2002 to help eradicate FGM. She said: "I am worried about the situation in Europe and the US, as FGM seems to be on the rise in these places. In the 21st century, a crime this cruel should not be accepted in a society as developed as England. No one can undo the trauma that is caused by this horrible crime; it stays in your head for ever. So what we should focus on is that there won't be another victim."

•   •   •  

Muslim police chef defeated in 'bacon roll' tribunal faces 75,000 legal bill   [12/20/09]
In London, a Muslim chef who had sued his employers for forcing him to handle pork products was busted when it was found he was a willing bacon chomper. Hasanali Khoja thought he could get on the often lucrative gravy train of lawyering up with Islo-lawsuits for big money shakedowns (e.g. the bogus flying imams case).

    A Muslim chef who lost a claim of religious discrimination against Scotland Yard after complaining he was forced to cook sausages and bacon faces a legal bill of more than 75,000.
        Hasanali Khoja accused the Metropolitan Police of failing to consider his Islamic beliefs when he was asked to handle pork products as a catering manager at a police station.
        The 23,000-a-year chef claimed suggestions by his bosses that he should wear gloves and use tongs left him 'stressed and humiliated'. Muslims are banned from eating pork under Islamic law.
        But Mr Khoja, 62, lost his claim in May after a police employee told an employment tribunal how she saw Mr Khoja eat bacon rolls and sausages.
        The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has now won a ruling ordering Mr Khoja to pay its costs, which total at least 76,200. In its costs claim, the Met said Mr Khoja 'knew that he had asked for a bacon roll two or three times for personal consumption before bringing his claim and throughout the conduct of his claim'.
In fact, lying is part of Islamic culture. Not only do many Muslim immigrants hail from totalitarian countries (like Saudi Arabia) where occasional dissimulation is a wise strategy, Islam itself declares that lying to infidels is cool in the service of Allah (known as taqiyya). How easy for that attitude to slide over into the area of personal gain.
    This case is yet another example that Muslim cultures are incompatible with our values, and Islamic immigration is therefore a big mistake. The Judeo-Christian scriptures condemn lying rather strongly.
    Plus, we have plenty of homegrown thieves and liars (on display daily in Washington), and don't need to import additional lying weasels from abroad.

•   •   •  

Men admit stealing seed pods from Utah nat'l park   [12/19/09]
This case is more proof that illegals come to steal and despoil. Mexican cartels are firmly ensconced in treasured national parks like Yosemite and Sequoia, while freelancer thieves poach animals and steal greenery from protected locales.
    A pair of illegals tried to steal large quantities of seeds for the Palmer's penstemon (shown) from Zion Park.

    Two men have pleaded guilty to trying to steal 600 pounds of wildflower seed pods in southern Utah's Zion National Park in hopes of a payday on the commercial market.
        Cresencio Martinez-Guzman, 44, and Cresencio Lucena-Alvarez, 23, pleaded guilty to felony theft of government property and were sentenced to probation Dec. 7. They also admitted being in the U.S. illegally and agreed not to fight deportation.
        The pair had apparently spent weeks in a remote portion of the park pinching Palmer's penstemon, a tall-growing native plant whose seeds are often used by government agencies for reseeding projects, according to court records.
        They were arrested in September after Zion park rangers spotted them with several large bags of seed pods inside the park's western boundary. The commercial value of the pair's cache was about $25,000, according to court documents. [...]
        Palmer's penstemon, a short-lived native that produces showy pink flowers, is popular with government agencies because it grows fast, provides good ground-cover, slows erosion and does well in arid conditions.

•   •   •  

Tulay Goren murder: 'honour' crimes doubling every year, figures show   [12/19/09]
Diversity is getting worse for young Muslim women in Britain, as Islamic daddies apparently feel they can get away with more sharia-type behavior such as killing independent daughters (e.g. Tulay Goren, pictured). Or perhaps the authorities are waking up to what was there all along, but was hidden by media and elite praise for the wonderful new diversity enriching the country.

    The number of murders, rapes and assaults on people who dare to break strict religious or cultural rules is doubling every year, police figures show, with up to two violent "honour crimes" being committed every day.
        But charities which help victims of honour crimes say the true extent of the problem is far worse than the statistics show, as every year hundreds of victims - normally women - are too frightened to report attacks or to give evidence in court.
        The escalating problem was highlighted yesterday as an Old Bailey jury convicted Mehmet Goren, 49, of the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of his 15-year-old daughter Tulay after she fell in love with someone from the "wrong" branch of Islam.
        Miss Goren disappeared 10 years ago after telling a friend she might be pregnant but justice caught up with her father after his wife "courageously" testified against him and lifted what was described as the "cloak of secrecy" which surrounds honour crimes.
        A prosecutor said the case was a "wake-up call" to the authorities over the extent of the problem in this country, which campaigners say is growing because of the rise of religious fundamentalism.
Actually, it's Muslim immigration that's growing, not so much "fundamentalism" (all of Islam, if you read the Koran). There are now 2.4 million Muslims residing in Britain, which they say is "nice" to them, though "cringing" and "submissive" would be better descriptions.

•   •   •  

California population growth slows   [12/18/09]
To be clear: only the rate of growth is lessened; there are hundreds of thousands more people in this state than there were last year, despite the official unemployment rate of 12.3 percent.

    California's population growth slowed over the past year as tens of thousands of residents moved away - many of them heading to other Western states, according to the state Department of Finance.
        The Golden State's population grew by 353,000 to 38.4 million from July 2008 to July 2009. The only years with lower growth rates since 1900 were 1994-96, according to a report released by the department Thursday.
        More people left the state for other parts of the country than moved here, a difference of about 142,000 people. While that number is outweighed by people moving from other countries to California, it continues a trend of migration to other states that began in 2005.
        Since that year, more than half a million more people have left California than have moved to the state. They mainly have moved to neighboring Western states, said Mary Heim, chief of the demographic research unit at the Department of Finance. In past years, more of those people moved to Nevada, but last year saw an increase in people moving to Oregon and Washington, she said. Texas also attracts a large number of Californians.
        Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, said he is not surprised by the data.
        "Most people who move to or from California do so for economic reasons, specifically jobs. Our unemployment rate is significantly higher than the rest of the country and when that happens, California tends to send more migrants to other states than we receive," Johnson said.
        California's birthrate and immigration from outside the United States, both legal and illegal, kept the state's growth rate positive at 0.92 percent.
In other words, the foreigners keep coming. Plus many of those births are to foreign-born women (46 percent in 2006).

Below, diverse multilingual phones at the unemployment office in Glendale CA.


UPDATE: The Sacramento Bee has more details.

    A sharply decreased level of foreign immigration, both legal and illegal, was apparently the major reason for the dropoff in population growth. The department says net migration - those moving into the state minus those that moved out - was just 37,000. It estimates that 179,000 foreign immigrants came to California during the year while 142,000 residents left for elsewhere. But the state's production of babies, its primary source of growth, remained high at 547,000, offset by 231,000 deaths.
        Overall growth since the 2000 census is 4.6 million, the department says, and now stands at 38.5 million. The new estimates continue, however, a dispute between the state and the U.S. Census Bureau, which believes there are a million fewer Californians, primarily because the feds calculate that there's been far more outward migration than the state counts. The 2010 census apparently will resolve the issue, which affects the state's subventions from the federal government and how many congressional seats it will have.

•   •   •  

Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families   [12/18/09]
It's well known in the civilized, science-literate world that cousin marriage is a bad thing, leading to crippling birth defects, lowered IQ and early death, among other things. However, in many Muslim societies, consanguinity is considered highly desirable because of the advantage of keeping property within the family. In Saudi Arabia, it's estimated that 60 percent marry first or second cousins, despite its negative effects on health and intelligence.
    Of course immigrants bring cousin marriage diversity when they come; e.g. while British Pakistanis are responsible for 3% of all births, they account for one in three British children born with genetic illnesses.
    The practice was recently noted in Gaza, where the high incidence of consanguinity has led to many cases of a birth defect, male pseudohermaphrodism.

    Nadir Mohammed Saleh and Ahmed Fayiz Abed Rabo are cousins and next-door neighbors. With their gelled hair, buttoned-down shirts and jeans, they look much like any other 16-year-old Palestinian boy. But looks, Ahmed says, can be deceiving.
        "Only my appearance, my haircut and clothing, makes me look like a boy," Ahmed says, gesturing with his hands across his face. "Inside, I am like a female. I am a girl."
        Until last summer, both Nadir and Ahmed were -- for all intents and purposes -- girls. They wore female headscarves, attended girls' school and even answered to the female first names Navin and Ola.
        Both Nadir and Ahmed were born with a rare birth defect called male pseudohermaphrodism.
        Deficiency of the hormone 17-B-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17-B-HSD) during pregnancy left their male reproductive organs deformed and buried deep within their abdomens.
        At birth, doctors identified Nadir and Ahmed as girls, because they appeared to have female genitalia. [...]
        Dr. Jehad Abudaia, a Canadian-Palestinian pediatrician and urologist practicing in Gaza, says he has diagnosed nearly 80 cases like Nadir's and Ahmed's in the last seven years.
        "It is astonishing that we have [so] many cases with this defect, which is very rare all over the world," Abudaia says. He attributes the high frequency of this birth defect to "consanguinity," or in-breeding.
        "If you want to go to the root of the problem, this problem runs in families in the genes." Abudaia says. "They want to get married to cousins... they don't go to another family. This is a problem."

•   •   •  

Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World   [12/18/09]
Amen. No self-defense, no freedom.

•   •   •  

Study: European Muslims Feel Shut Out   [12/17/09]
Time magazine has cranked out some pro-Islam propaganda, by way of George Soros. According to a "study" from Soros' Open Society, Muslims are misunderstood little lambs who only want to be part of the European community. (If so, they have a funny way of showing it.)

    The recent Swiss referendum vote to ban the building of minarets seemed to confirm a trend: Europeans are becoming increasingly strident in their attempts to "protect" their culture against Islam. However, a newly published report by the Open Society Institute (OSI), a think tank set up by billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros, details the complex relationship between Muslims and non-Muslim Europeans and reveals that the suspicion is mutual. Muslims believe they are being shut out of European society.
Hello! "Protecting their culture against Islam" means defending Enlightenment values, including free speech, representative government and individual rights (including those of women and gays, who are sometimes hanged in Islamic countries). In fact, Swiss women were major supporters of the minaret ban, eight percent more than men according to one poll.
    About 20 million Muslims live in the European Union, mostly in capital cities and large industrial towns; they already make up 25% of the population in Marseilles, France, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands; 20% in Malm, Sweden; 15% in Brussels and Birmingham, England; and 10% in London, Paris and Copenhagen. The report, published on Dec. 15, surveyed Muslims in 11 cities across the E.U. and found that 55% of respondents believed religious discrimination had risen in the past five years. And while many Muslims are a long-standing and integral part of the fabric of their cities, the report says they are still almost three times more likely to be unemployed than non-Muslims. But far from seeking out Islamic ghettos, many Muslim families appear desperately keen to integrate. "A lot of Muslims especially parents were sad they could not live in mixed neighborhoods, where they could experience diversity," says Tufyal Choudhury, lead author of the report.
Muslim immigrants are pining to "experience diversity" -- how charming! (But such feelings exist only in the Soros imaginary universe.)
    The findings echo earlier research revealing hostility toward Muslims and other minority groups. The Fundamental Rights Agency report, released on Dec. 9, surveyed more than 23,000 individuals from ethnic minority and immigrant groups about their experiences of discrimination, racist crime and policing in the E.U. Minorities commonly face discrimination while looking for a job, shopping or visiting the doctor, according to the report, which labeled as "shocking" the racist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic experiences of minorities as they go about their daily lives. A 2004 study by Sorbonne sociologist Jean-Franois Amadieu found that a standard rsum with a Muslim name was five times less likely to elicit an interview than the same rsum with a non-Muslim name.
In fact, a 2006 poll found a different result on the subject of accepting the society in which they have settled: Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK. A Pew poll from that year showed still more negativity: Poll shows Muslims in Britain are the most anti-western in Europe.
    Time's coverage of this issue is an attempt to normalize a hostile population that has come to conquer, not assimilate. Muslims residing in Europe have NEVER stood up against terrorism. They only complain when their immediate comfort is threatened.

The photo below is from the Time article, where one sign translates to "We are Muslims, not Hitler."


Which is funny, given the following:


•   •   •  

Jury finds Haq guilty in Jewish Federation Center   [12/17/09]
It's good news indeed whenever a jury rejects the usual insanity defense in a jihadist murder case. This one required a second trial after the first one failed to reach a verdict.
    The original crime was the terrorist 2006 attack on the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in which one woman was killed (Pam Waechter, pictured) and five others were shot. After shooter Naveed Haq forced his way into the office, he stated, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," and then started firing.

    Jewish Federation shooter Naveed Haq was found guilty of aggravated murder Tuesday, with jurors unanimously rejecting claims of insanity raised by the defense.
        Haq, 34, had been charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the July 28, 2006, shooting that left one woman dead and another five seriously injured. The jury convicted him on all eight counts, including five counts of attempted murder.
        Echoing King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg's description of the attack as "our state's worst hate crime," shooting survivor Carol Goldman said the verdict was an indictment of Haq's views and actions.
A change in prosecution strategy may have made the difference in getting a conviction, as hinted in a Nov 5 news article, 'You should be proud,' Haq told mother after shootings. This information about Haq's jihadist motivation was not presented to the jury in the first trial.
    In the days after he killed one woman and wounded five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Naveed Haq telephoned his mother from jail and proclaimed, "You should be proud of me. I'm a martyr now. I'm going to go to heaven," according to a recording played Wednesday during his trial. [...]
        "I'm proud of what I did," Haq said to his sobbing mother in one call placed from the King County Jail to his parent's home in the Tri-Cities. "I'm a soldier. I'm a soldier of Islam."
The verdict carries an automatic life sentence for Naveed Haq (pictured above).

•   •   •  

Group's Census promo called 'blasphemous'   [12/16/09]
While some Hispanics support a boycott of the upcoming Census count, others want every illegal adult, teen and anchor baby toted up for the future billions of dollars in social services those numbers will attract from the spendo-goverrnment.
    As it happens, Mexicans in particular are fixated in December on the image of Mary and Joseph searching unsuccessfully for a place to spend the night. They think that they, as illegal aliens, are similar to the holy family, believing that the inconvenience of full-up hotels is somehow like the semi-unwelcome they receive in America. It's another Mexican delusion, because Mary and Joseph were where they were supposed to be, unlike millions of Mexes.
    Anyway, the image of the holy family has been further turned into another propaganda ploy because of an odd twist of illegal Mexican culture.

A push to spread the gospel about the 2010 Census this Christmas is stoking controversy with a campaign that links the government count to events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
    The National Association of Latino Elected Officials is leading the distribution to churches and clergy of thousands of posters that depict the arrival of Joseph and a pregnant Mary in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago. As chronicled in the Gospel of Luke, Joseph returned to be counted in a Roman census, but he and Mary found no room at an inn, and Jesus was born in a manger.
    "This is how Jesus was born," the poster states. "Joseph and Mary participated in the Census."
    Most of the posters are in Spanish and target Latino evangelicals, says Jose Cruz, senior director of civic engagement at the Latino association, which launched its Ya Es Hora (It's Time) campaign in 2006 to promote voter registration among Latinos.
    It is promoting the Census, used to help allocate $400 billion a year in federal dollars, redraw state and local political districts and determine the number of seats each state gets in Congress.
Interestingly, at least one Hispanic thinks the campaign is off the reservation.
The Rev. Miguel Rivera, chairman of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, says invoking the name of Jesus to promote the 2010 Census is "blasphemous" and "violates the concept of separation of church and state." Using the name of Jesus for "a political and secular intention, it is definitely an assault against our Christian faith," Rivera says.
Despite the objections of one clergyman, it appears the campaign will go forward since money still comes first for immigrants, aliens and their supportive infrastructure.

•   •   •  

Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them   [12/16/09]
Columnist Byron York probes the dark recesses of the Democrat mind, and finds that leaders at the tippy top are willing to sacrifice underlings to achieve their aim of socialist healthcare.

    I put the question to a Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous. Yes, Democrats certainly understand that voters don't like the current bills, he told me, and they are fully aware they will probably pay a price next year. But they have found a way to view going ahead anyway as the logical thing to do, at least in their eyes.
        You have to look at the issue from three different Democratic perspectives: the House of Representatives, the White House and the Senate.
        "In the House, the view of [California Rep. Henry] Waxman and [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi is that we've waited two generations to get health care passed, and the 20 or 40 members of Congress who are going to lose their seats as a result are transitional players at best," he said. "This is something the party has wanted since Franklin Roosevelt." In this view, losses are just the price of doing something great and historic. (The strategist also noted that it's easy for Waxman and Pelosi to say that, since they come from safely liberal districts.)
        "At the White House, the picture is slightly different," he continued. "Their view is, 'We're all in on this, totally committed, and we don't have to run for re-election next year. There will never be a better time to do it than now.'"
Now transpose this mindset to illegal immigration. Democrat generals are already willing to kill off dozens of soldiers to win the battle of healthcare. Many moderates are dead Democrats walking. Speaker Pelosi and others may strategize that an unpopular amnesty would nevertheless assure a permanent Democrat majority in the future, and would be worth the cost in lost seats. Therefore, now is the time to ram through the far-left immigration agenda, before the voters can strike back next November.
    In for a dime, in for a dollar, as they say.
    Many bright people think that the Dems' amnesty legislation (submitted this week by amnesty cheerleader Rep. Luis Gutierrez) is going nowhere fast. Mark Krikorian calls it Dead on Arrival. Joe Guzzardi says Reid, Amnesty, Won't Make It. Rick Oltman thinks that business elites prefer the current messy system: Comprehensive (Unofficial) Amnesty.
    This kind of thinking is reasonable and appropriate for normal times, but now is not normal. Representative government is under assault today as never before. The Democrat majority and President show no interest in what the people want -- in issues of healthcare, national security, immigration and crazed spending. It's frightening to behold. My fear is that Dems will forge ahead with policies that are suicidal in the short run, but pay off for them over the longer term.
    The big hope has to be that Pelosi's "transitional players" aren't willing to be road kill for healthcare or amnesty.

Do these Congressional reps look like they are fooling?

•   •   •  

Harassment across Arab world drives women inside   [12/16/09]
A central part of Islam is the oppression of women, and since Islam is perfect (in the minds of traditional Muslims), change is impossible. In the West, women are free individuals; in Muslim lands they are increasingly prisoners in a very real sense.

    The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab world is driving them to cover up and confine themselves to their homes, said activists at the first-ever regional conference addressing the once taboo topic.
        Activists from 17 countries across the region met in Cairo for a two-day conference ending Monday and concluded that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don't punish it, women don't report it and the authorities ignore it.
        The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, is a daily experience women in the region face and makes them wary of going into public spaces, whether it's the streets or jobs, the participants said. It happens regardless of what women are wearing.
        With more and more women in schools, the workplace and politics, roles have changed but often traditional attitudes have not. Experts said in some places, like Egypt, harassment appears sometimes to be out of vengeance, from men blaming women for denied work opportunities. [...]
        As many as 90 percent of Yemeni women say they have been harassed, while in Egypt, out of a sample of 1,000, 83 percent reported being verbally or physically abused.
        A study in Lebanon reported that more than 30 percent of women said they had been harassed there.
        "We are facing a phenomena that is limiting women's right to move ... and is threatening women's participation in all walks of life," said Nehad Abul Komsan, an Egyptian activist who organized the event with funding from the U.N. and the Swedish development agency.
        Harassment has long been a problem in Mideast nations. But it was little discussed until three years ago, when blogs gave posted amateur videos showing a crowd of men assaulting women in downtown Cairo during a major Muslim holiday in one of the most shocking harassment incidents in the region.
For more on the last item, see Cairo street crowds target women (BBC, 11/1/06)
    Egyptians are horrified by the news that women have been assaulted by hordes of young men in the centre of the capital, Cairo.

•   •   •  

An Immigration Time-Out   [12/15/09]
John Derbyshire has an interesting mathematical twist on the immigration issue, where he critiques a math book for its sudden deviation away from logic and into corucopian fantasies. On the basis of this and other examples, he laments that "big national policies are... deeply irrational."

    [Steven] Landsburg summons up our memories of Goofus and Gallant, protagonists of the moral-education comic strip in the Highlights for Children magazine:
      Goofus erects a border fence. Gallant says, "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me." . . . Goofus, being a jerk, would consign millions of unskilled Mexicans to lives of desperate poverty because well, because he doesn't think they count for very much.
    Now, we have it on the authority of the Pew Research Center pollsters that one Mexican in three would move to the U.S.A., given the opportunity. That would be 37 million, to add to the 12 million Mexican-born residents we already have. Perhaps Goofus thinks that 49 million immigrants from one country would be too much of an imposition on American citizens, and a demographic catastrophe for the sending nation. Why is that jerkish?
        And why this favoritism towards Mexicans? They do not live lives of desperate poverty. The CIA World Factbook shows a 2008 per capita GDP of $14,300, ranking Mexico as the 79th richest of the 229 jurisdictions listed richer than Romania, Turkey, and Brazil. To put it another way, there are 140 places in the world poorer than Mexico. Why isnt it Gallant whos being a jerk, favoring these comparatively prosperous Mexicans over the much poorer people of Albania ($6,000), Kyrgyzstan ($2,200), Nepal ($1,100), and Zimbabwe ($200)? Why is that not jerkish? [...]
        What is on display here in both cases is that in the U.S.A., among a sizable segment of the cognitive elites, immigration is the focus of a hysterical cult. The contemplation of this topic causes literate, well-educated people to take temporary leave of their senses. It also excites them to a moralizing frenzy, in which those who disagree are seen as irredeemably wicked, in the grip of dark forces, gloating in cruelty, all pity choked with custom of fell deeds or at the very least, as jerks.
Plus, I'm convinced that many well heeled members of the "hysterical cult" benefit directly from permissive immigration by having cheap illegal alien household help.

•   •   •  

Immigration bill backers try again despite jobless rate   [12/15/09]
During the Great Depression, America was not infested with foreigners who work daily to undermine this country's sovereignty and culture of laws. But today, La Raza and similar ilk have virtually unlimited funds to pursue their leftist agenda of multiculturalism and no borders.

    Democrats on Tuesday begin their new push for an immigration bill, hamstrung by the image of legalizing millions of illegal immigrant workers at a time when the unemployment rate stands at 10 percent -- more than twice what it was the last time Congress tried to act.
        "It certainly will confuse the debate a lot more, but at the end of the day what we have to understand is fixing this system will be good for American workers," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which is one of the major advocates for legalizing illegal immigrant workers.
When there are over six applicants for every available job, how can it help unemployed citizens to add millions to the number of legal job seekers?
    Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, the Illinois Democrat who has taken over leadership on the issue after the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, plans to introduce an immigration legalization bill Tuesday, and backers are planning a strategy to avoid repeats of the failed attempts of 2006 and 2007.
        In a letter to members of Congress last week seeking support for the bill, Mr. Gutierrez and Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, New York Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said their legislation will end the off-the-books economy of illegal immigrant workers and protect American workers by raising labor standards.
        "In these difficult economic times, we must ensure that everyone contributes toward the recovery and prosperity of our nation," they wrote. "To this end, it is imperative that all individuals and employers pay their fair share in taxes."
        A draft overview of the bill, circulated with the letter, ends some enforcement tools such as the 287(g) local police cooperation program, calls for an electronic verification system to replace the voluntary E-verify program, argues that there's no need for more U.S. Border Patrol agents or fencing, and establishes a long-term path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
        That path would require illegal immigrants to pay a $500 fine, pass a background check and learn English and civics to gain legal status. After six years, they could apply for legal permanent residence, or a green card, which is the interim step to citizenship. There is no "touchback" provision requiring them to return to their home countries at some point in the process. [...]
        "With 15 million Americans out of work, it's hard to believe that anyone would give amnesty to 12 million illegal immigrants," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Even the open-borders crowd agrees that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. This is exactly why we need to oppose amnesty."
Meanwhile, the New York Times polled unemployed Americans and found terrible suffering: Poll Reveals Trauma of Joblessness in U.S....
    More than half of the nations unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs. An equal number have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments because they are out of work.
        Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About 4 in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they attribute to their difficulties in finding work.
        Joblessness has wreaked financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, causing major life changes, mental health issues and trouble maintaining even basic necessities.
This misery could be cut substantially if Washington required universal E-verify for every working person, but that won't happen with the D-gang in charge, and few Republicans are proviiding leadership against the open-borders Marxicans.

•   •   •  

La Posada at border fence   [12/15/09]
The Mexican pre-Christmas celebration of Las Posadas has often been hijacked in this country for anti-border propaganda. Raza types in southern California have gathered for years at the annual walk-and-whine procession to the border to equate illegal aliens with Joseph and Mary (an inaccurate comparison, when examined).

    IMPERIAL BEACH - Faith groups from the United States and Mexico gathered yesterday afternoon at Border Field State Park in what was both a religious celebration and a political statement.
        The 16th annual La Posada Sin Fronteras was a re-enactment of the biblical story of Mary and Joseph, who were forced to seek shelter after the birth of Christ and were eventually welcomed into a stranger's home. Participants from both countries compared the biblical tale to the struggle migrants face trying to enter the United States.
        One of the messages of the story, the idea of welcoming strangers -- and immigrants -- is under attack in our times, making the binational celebration even more significant, organizers said. Today, families on both sides of the border are separated by immigration policy and can no longer meet, even at the border fence, organizers said.
Illegal alien supporters like to quote the Bible verse that says to "welcome the stranger" but the Good Book may have had a temporary visit in mind, not a permanent invasion of millions.

There's a better verse from scripture...

"Amen, amen I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber." (John 10:1)

•   •   •  

L.A. Latinos celebrate a patron saint and a culture   [12/14/09]
The Catholic church has long encouraged Mexican immigrants and illegal aliens to keep their home culture rather than assimilate to American society. Even though the church is given tax-exempt status (which requires it keep its nose out of politics), it works purposefully to undermine the sovereignty of this country.
    Sadly, many of the Protestant churches are mindless anti-borders flunkies also, but since most Hispanics are Catholic, that church in particular sees open borders and increased Hispanic pew-fillers positively. The cassock brigades are the big dogs in the pack here, both as activists and beneficiaries.
    The story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is something of a foundation myth to Mexicans, so the festival celebration is a big deal.

    The Dec. 12 feast day holds special significance for Catholics of Mexican heritage.
        Catholic tradition teaches that a peasant, Juan Diego, was walking over a hill called Tepeyac, a site linked to an ancient fertility goddess, when a brown-skinned woman appeared. She spoke in Nahuatl, language of the Aztecs, and asked that a church be built on the hill, which is near Mexico City.
        For the faithful, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is more than symbol, Estrada said. "It's real," he said. "It is like a person that gives you strength and courage."
Furthermore, the church's efforts are not just cultural but political. Our Lady Queen of Angels Church uses the occasion to promote its anti-American, pro-amnesty agenda.
    The church has also been known for political activism. A sign outside the complex reads Madre sin fronteras -- mother without borders -- an allusion to immigration policy in the U.S.
        The church uses each year's feast day theme to convey a message, its priests said.
        This year, they chose "Do not be afraid, I am with you." They wanted to use the message to persuade illegal Latino immigrants to participate in the 2010 Census, Estrada said. "It's important that everyone is counted," the pastor said.
        Estrada pointed to the plight of the poor and the undocumented in Los Angeles as reasons the story of the Virgin still resonates.
        "These are the Juan Diegos," Estrada said. "These are the poor and the people she really speaks to.
        "Here in this church, it's not purely religious. We don't just say Mass and give confessions. We help organize people to treat themselves with dignity and express their culture."
This church's mission sounds suspiciously like Alinsky-style community organizing with a big dollop of Mexican self-esteem on top. It certainly has little resemblance to spreading the gospel.


Dancers mark the Virgin's feast day at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church. "We celebrate as if it were in Mexico," said Father Paschal Amagba, an associate pastor of the church. "When the people come here, they feel at home."

•   •   •  

Pictured: Islamic militants stone man to death for adultery in Somalia as villagers are forced to watch   [12/14/09]
Tiger Woods should avoid the Mogadishu Open when he returns to golf from his time-out to repair his marriage (or so he says), since adultury is taken seriously in Somalia by Allah's gangsters.
    Seriously, the photos below show the gruesome reality of Islamic sharia law, which Muslim immigrants wish to install throughout the West, including our country.

    This barbaric scene belongs in the Dark Ages, but pictures emerged today of a group of Islamic militants who forced villagers to watch as they stoned a man to death for adultery.
        Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, a 48-year-old, was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks until he died.
        The group responsible, Hizbul Islam, also shot dead a man they claimed was a murderer. [...]
        But when some Hizbul Islam fighters wanted to delay the executions, a bloody gun battle broke out between the two factions, shocked residents said.
        'Three Hizbul Islam fighters died and five others were injured after they fought each other," Halima Osman, an Afgoye shopkeeper, told Reuters in Mogadishu by telephone.
        'Some wanted to delay the execution while the others insisted. They exchanged fire. The group that was against the execution was overpowered and chased away,' she said.
Isn't that nice... several Muslim fellows were killed by their pals for being insufficiently blood thirsty.
    Al Shabaab, and to a lesser extent Hizbul Islam, are fighting the government to impose their harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law across the drought-ravaged country.
        'Al Shabaab clerics have banned movies, dancing at weddings and playing or watching soccer in the areas under their control, as well as carrying out executions and amputations.

Below, the offending adulterer is semi-buried in preparation for his execution as villagers look on in the background.


The stoning proceeds, with apparent enthusiasm on the part of the stoners, until the man dies. The face has been pixilated in the interest of taste.


Bear in mind that Somalis are welcomed to America like few other groups. The State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somalis as refugees in the last 25 years (as calculated by Refugee Resettlement Watch). Somalis are also included in the Diversity Visa lottery; 229 slots in 2010, although in 2002, Washington offered a generous 1,328 visas in that category. (In 2007, a GAO report found that the program had admitted nearly 10,000 from terrorist states.) The 2000 Census counted 35,760 Somali-born persons; however, a CBS news report from this year (FBI Watching Somali Muslims In Minneapolis) put the number in Minnapolis alone at 70,000.
    Furthermore, Somalis residing in this country have traveled back to their home country to pursue jihad to kill infidels and purify Islam. Perhaps some are included among the masked stoners.
    Is this the kind of diversity America wants?

•   •   •  

How Much Allah Can the Old Continent Bear?   [12/13/09]
Would Der Spiegel have presented an article so entitled before the Swiss vote to ban minarets? Doubtful. The voice of the Swiss people against Islam has opened up the debate in Europe about whether Muslim immigration was a dangerously dumb idea.

    Switzerland's recent vote to ban the construction of new minarets has shocked and angered Muslims around the world. But the controversial move also reflects a growing sense of unease among other Europeans who have trouble coming to terms with Islam's increased visibility. [...]
        The Swiss decision has shocked Europe and the world because its ramifications go far beyond the building of minarets -- they also concern the identity of an entire continent. This was a referendum on Western society's perception of Islam as a threat. The issue is generating intense debate: Just how much of Islam is predominantly Christian Europe prepared to accept? The decision by the otherwise so tolerant Alpine country reveals the deep-seated fear of an Islam that is becoming increasingly visible.
        Are Muslim immigrants threatening European values? This is a concern shared by many Europeans across the continent. Surveys last week revealed that 44 percent of Germans oppose the construction of minarets, followed by 41 percent of the French. Fifty-five percent of all Europeans see Islam as an intolerant religion. [...]
        American author and journalist Christopher Caldwell recently published his latest tome, "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West," a widely-read and skeptical book on Europe and its Muslim immigrants. What fascinates him about the result of the Swiss vote is the gap between the rejection of the ban in surveys and the considerable support that it received during the referendum. "It means there is an official discussion of Islam and that there is a subterranean discussion of it," he says. "That should worry Europeans."

•   •   •  

Staten Island octomom Mamie Manneh gets probation in monkey meat case   [12/12/09]
No jail time is a disappointing conclusion to a smuggling case that included diversity, species preservation and a threat to public health.
    In 2006, a Liberian with a long rap sheet, Mamie Manneh, was busted for illegaly importing 720 pounds of monkey meat for the delectation of her fellow Africans. (See backstory items on Monkey Meat Diversity.) But the judicial decision was weak...

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Green argued that Mamie Manneh was not entitled to leniency because she has 11 prior arrests - including one for running over her husband's suspected mistress with an SUV - and cooked up a bogus defense that she had a constitutional right to eat bushmeat.
        "Your daughter calls you 'supermom,' so the picture is not so clear," said Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie.
        Mamie Manneh, 41, was busted in 2006 when Kennedy Airport agents found hacked-up animal heads and haunches stashed in a shipment of smoked fish.
        Brooklyn federal Judge Raymond Dearie cut Manneh a break, he said, because she suffers from mental illness and has 11 children at home.
        But he also gave her a stern warning not to violate her probationary terms. Her long rap sheet includes charges of selling stolen clothing and running down her husband's girlfriend with an SUV.
So a multiple offender with 11 priors was given probation only. Apparently the judge thought the charges were no biggie, despite the pleas of the world's top defender of primates: Jane Goodall urges judge to consider 'gravity' of woman's crime of importing illegal monkey meat.
    Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall urged the judge who will sentence a Staten Island woman who imported illegal monkey meat from Africa to consider the "gravity" of the crime.
        Goodall's letter to Federal Judge Raymond Dearie was released on the eve of Mamie Manneh's sentencing Friday.
        "As a leader in the global community, the U.S. has a responsibility to uphold and strongly enforce" laws to curb the "devastating impact unregulated consumption of wildlife is having on species populations in Africa," Goodall, 75, wrote.
        She also stressed that bringing illegal wildlife into the U.S. could have "grave consequences on public health."
        A prosecution expert said monkey meat could cause outbreaks of Ebola, measles, tuberculosis and retroviruses similar to HIV.
The New York Times included the public health aspect in its November 17, 2007, report on the Maneh case: A Taste of Baboon and Monkey Meat, and Maybe of Prison, Too.
    Epidemiologists have shown that ebola can be contracted by butchering chimpanzees, and the first human case of H.I.V. probably originated through similar exposure, said Nathan Wolfe, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California in Los Angeles. The growth in global demand for wild game, he said, increases the potential for spreading agents "that could represent serious threats to humanity," he said.
So the consumption of monkey meat is not a harmless custom of diverse immigrants, but a danger to public health.

•   •   •  

Mary and Joseph, as Illegal Immigrants   [12/11/09]
In the sanctuary city of San Francisco, illegal aliens feel especially free to compare their lawbreaking behavior to that of the holy family, which if not blasphemous is certainly arrogant. Specifically, Mexicans use their traditional posadas procession, which re-enacts Joseph and Mary unsuccessfully searching for an inn, as a way to whine childishly about law and borders. (See Mexicans' Merry Posadas! for more about hijacking a religious custom for a political agenda.)

    La Posarela, a bilingual musical play, re-enacts the biblical journey of a young couple who traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a place to sleep with their first-born child Jesus.
        But as told in the 45-minute play, free at 7 p.m. on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12 at the Community Music Center, the themes of homelessness, undocumented immigration and health care come to the fore.
        "Ay, Jose. Maybe, after all, this city willcontinue to be a sanctuary city forillegal pilgrims like us," Ana Ortiz, who plays Mary, tellsJoseph.
        Rooted in the Mexican tradition of the bible narrative, La Posarela tells the story of Mary and Joseph going from inn to inn looking for shelter. Each time, they are turned away.
Note: Joseph and Mary were turned away because the lodging establishments were already full, because they were crowded with many people also traveling to be counted in the census. To that extent, the analogy holds up. As the late photographer Ansel Adams remarked, "When the theater's full, they don't sell lap-space."
    Another interesting point of logical dislocation is how some of today's illegals propose to boycott the census, unlike Joseph and Mary who scrupulously followed the law.
    The search symbolizes today's social perils -- in the Mission District and across the country -- of trying to find shelter and undocumented immigrants trying to belong, said Chus Alonso, the play's music director.It can also symbolize a person's search for the truth, he added. [...]
        Luis De la Vega, who plays Joseph, said he enjoys sharing his heritage with others.
        "When I was asked by my teacher if I wanted to participate, I said yes, this is a great way to showcase our Latino culture."
Yes, Luis, tell everyone about your Hispanic pride in the disdain for law.

"Arriba, Mary, we have an anchor baby!" exclaimed Mexican Joseph.


•   •   •  

Survey says 25% of young Hispanics identify themselves as American first   [12/11/09]
Say, wasn't America the country that was the gold standard for assimilation of immigrants? Not so much any more.
    Anti-assimilation is taught in the nation's schools by the glorification of multiculturalism, which promotes separatism. Plus, there are the influences of Spanish media and racist interest groups like La Raza, plus the ease of communication with the home country.

    What makes an American?
        The question is asked in a new study by the Pew Hispanic Center that looks at a population group of 7.7 million making a historical mark Hispanics between the ages of 16 to 25.
        "Never before in the nation's history has a minority group made up so much of our young population," said Paul Taylor, director of the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center and the executive vice president of the Pew Research Center.
        Yet when these young people were asked for a term to first describe themselves, only a quarter chose "American," according to a national survey of 2,012 people. If they were the U.S.-born children of immigrants, the American description rose to one-third. If they were the grandchildren of immigrants or even more removed from migration, half were likely to identify themselves as American.
Here's the original report (156 pages): Between Two Worlds - How Young Latinos Come of Age in America

For an explanation of how our schools once taught American values, see Victor Davis Hanson's remembrance of his early education in a California farm town, The Civic Education America Needs.

•   •   •  

School 'Too Diverse' for Christmas Tree   [12/11/09]
Multicultural immigration is not friendly to Christian traditions in Europe, as this item from the Netherlands indicates.

    THE HAGUE, 09/12/09 - The Haagsche Hogeschool college will not put up a Christmas tree this year because it does not want to cause provocation to immigrant students. The tree is too closely linked with Christianity, according to the school management.
        Traditionally, a meters-high tree always stood in the school's atrium. Now there are only some streamers and fairy lights hanging there. Management wants to "stress the international character and the diversity within the school" by this move. The school is opting for "light and heat," which can be enjoyed by everyone in his or her own manner, according to the management.
        The college has 20,000 students. Thirty percent are of immigrant origin, as are 12 percent of the teachers. Many pupils expressed fury on the Internet about the decision not to put up a tree this year. "Because a handful of religious good-for-nothings take offence about a tree with some lights and coloured balls, the rest of the school community has to suffer," complained one pupil.

•   •   •  

Muslim men who force their wives to wear the burkha are not welcome in France, says justice minister   [12/10/09]
Nice to hear about some spinal formation happening in Europe after the Swiss vote to ban minarets passed; perhaps the edifice of political correctness has been taken down a peg or two by the voice of the Swiss people.

    Muslim men who force their wives to wear a burkha are not welcome in France, the country's justice minister has said.
        Michelle Alliot-Marie said husbands making their wives wear a full body coverings did not 'share the nation's values'.
        They would have their citizenship requests rejected, she said.
The minister's remarks follow the French President's support of assimilation: Sarkozy defends Swiss vote to ban minarets
    French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Switzerland's vote to ban new minarets showed why it was vital for France to hold an extended debate on national identity despite criticism that it has only fuelled racist views.
        In a column in the daily Le Monde on Tuesday, Mr. Sarkozy defended the Swiss referendum against widespread criticism in France, saying it had laid bare fears of a loss of identity that should not be ignored.
        "Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France," he wrote. [...]
        Mr. Sarkozy said he would fight any form of discrimination against Muslims in France, but added that they had to adapt themselves to the values of France's secular Republic and its strict neutrality in religious matters.
To be fair, Sarkozy has long been openly pro-assimilation. He has called for the burqa to be banned from the streets and has promoted a discussion of French identity.

How much should France worry? See a recent YouTube showing Muslims taking over a French street for Friday prayers: Islamisation de Paris - Rue Polonceau (27 novembre 2009)

More on the subject: GaliaWatch: Barbes - An Update

•   •   •  

Taxpayers bear the burden as refugee resettlement soars   [12/10/09]
Here's a fine informational op-ed from someone who is expert on the subject.

    Considering that the refugee influx causes increases in all legal and illegal immigration as family and social networks are established in the U.S., the U.N. is effectively dictating much of U.S. immigration policy.
        A nonprofit nation of hundreds of taxpayer-funded organizations has grown up around refugee resettlement in the U.S. A government-funded study finds "U.S. resettlement communities are awash with ECBOs that exist in name only but provide little meaningful assistance." ECBO stands for Ethnic Community Based Organization, a government-defined category of grant recipients.
        The expansion of the fraud-prone refugee program and the transformation of refugee resettlement into a federal contracting business have given birth to a global refugee industry well-adapted to the federal grant and contract environment.
        Catholic Charities with its parent the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB ) is the largest refugee agency both nationally and in Nashville. It is neither a charity nor Catholic, but more an extension of a state welfare agency.
        Sixty-five percent of Catholic Charities USA's $3.6 billion annual budget comes from government sources. Refugee resettlement, a relatively small portion of its services, is covered by the government at closer to 100 percent. For nonprofits, it is profitable to be in refugee resettlement, and the executive directors of some of the 10 major resettlement agencies make almost as much as the president of the United States.
        Nashville Catholic Charities devotes about 26 percent of its budget to "immigrants and refugees," an amazingly high percentage considering most of that aid is going to recent refugee arrivals a fraction of 1 percent of Nashville's population. Interestingly, Tennessee recently put Nashville Catholic Charities in charge of distributing and monitoring federal "refugee" grant money to other NGOs in the state.

•   •   •  

George Jonas: What jihadists hate most   [12/09/09]
This article reflects on the video below, which deserves wide distribution because of the psychological issues it includes. The "former terrorist" interviewed was Dr. Tawfik Hamid of Cairo, who joined a terror group at the university where he studied medicine. But when his Islamist pals wanted him to bury a policeman alive, he decided a life dedicated to terror was not for him.

    Later in the interview, in answer to the question of who is the "enemy" -- is it the West, any non-Muslim, the Jews -- Dr. Tawfik is unequivocal:
        "The West, but in particular, women's rights. Women's rights was the first enemy for us."
        He adds that it's strange feminism should have been the biggest gripe of jihadists, but it was. He is emphatic that this is why, wherever a "radical [Islamist] group" acquires power, the first thing it does is suppress women.
        "First thing, before anything else, they tell women not to go out, to wear the hijab ..."
According to Islam, tyranny begins at home. Enslaving the women of the family serves to indoctrinate young males into the oppression inherent in the ideology.
    The basic approach to the outer world -- submit to Islam or die -- depends on thug aptitude, not persuasion. Islam was famously spread by the sword, and even today brute strength and ruthlessness are valued. And a boy who can kill his sister for violating the family's "honor" makes a perfect assassin.
    It's not altogether surprising that feminism looms larger among the grievances of Islamist militancy than the historic loss of the Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, or even the "catastrophe" of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Cultures, like people, often have a greater tolerance for injury than for insult. When the West added the perceived "insult" of women's rights in the second half of the 20th century to the injury of outpacing, outperforming and outflanking the House of Islam in the first half, feminism emerged as the straw that broke the camel's back.
        Muslim supremacists might have coped with modernity relegating their culture to second place behind the runaway success of Western civilization, but couldn't tolerate a challenge to their status as patriarchs in their homes. Their chauvinistic strings, wound tight by the territorial, technological, military, geographic and economic reduction of Islam over the last 400 years, snapped when plucked under their own roofs by their own wives and daughters.
There's a lot good in the analysis directly above, although I have some quibbles. The extreme sexual repression enforced upon Muslim males has to be understood as central in creating an irrational fury against women, particularly since the genders are very segregated and premarital sex is strictly forbidden in the Islamic world. The poor economies in many countries provide few job opportunities, which prevents many from marrying until later. The situation creates enormous social pathology which is cruel beyond what most westerners can imagine.
    The anger erupts in expressions of violent harassment against women. For example, nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit sexually harassing women. Even Islamically dressed women in Saudi Arabia are often bothered unmercifully when they try to get a little exercise by walking. In 2006, bloggers reported hundreds of marauding males attacked women in downtown Cairo during celebrations of the end of Ramadan. When Muslim men immigrate to the West, gang rape of infidel women becomes a problem.
    So Muslim males tend to become miffed when they see western women acting as free individuals rather than Allah's doormats, as the doctor observed.

•   •   •  

Migrant numbers double in 30 years: One in ten living in the UK is now foreign-born   [12/09/09]
The crazed desire of political elites to import huge numbers of foreigners is not limited to the United States; Britain has a bad case, as shown by recent statistics.

    The number of immigrants living in Britain has almost doubled in less than three decades, official figures show.
        More than 10 per cent of the population - 6.7million - were born abroad, the Office for National Statistics has found.
        The analysis shows that the count of those born abroad - now agreed to be the best figure for measuring the rate of immigration - is two million higher than it was just eight years ago.
A recent poll showed this policy to be opposed by the people whose country it is: Two in three Britons think UK has immigration problem (Guardian, Dec 3)
    One in five Britons, twice the European average, thought immigration was the most important issue facing the country. Only the Italians came close to sharing that view. While scepticism towards the benefits of immigration grew in all European countries, two out of three Britons, more than in all the other countries surveyed, thought immigration was more of a problem than an opportunity.
It's not a bad time to review the findings of a 2007 Pew Research Center study, World Publics Welcome Global Trade -- But Not Immigration. The point is that people don't want their home society swamped with strangers from a foreign culture. It's human nature to prefer one's own tribe.
    Given the worsened worldwide economy, it's likely the pro-restriction numbers would be higher today.


•   •   •  

Grandpa killed 3 minutes from home   [12/08/09]
After spending a July evening dining at a restaurant with his family, Leonard Dykstra (pictured) was struck down and killed on the way home by a drunk driving illegal alien.
    Efrain Garcia-Miron, whose blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit, pleaded guilty on Dec. 7 and will be sentenced in January.
    (The following article clip is from July 27.)

    A Wyoming man had a blood-alcohol level of 0.179 -- more than twice the legal limit -- when he drove across the centerline and killed an 80-year-old man, court records show.
        The victim, Leonard Dykstra, a grandfather of five, died Friday night on the road just three minutes from his home.
        Efrain Garcia-Miron, 32, was arraigned Monday in 59th District Court on a charge of operating while impaired causing death. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
        Dykstra, a retired U.S. Postal worker, had spent Friday evening doing what he loved most, said his son, Brian Dykstra.
        He joined his family at Russ's Restaurant in Holland, where his granddaughter works. He made sure she waited on the family, he said.
        Then, it was onto his son's home in Hudsonville for more family time.
        "He wouldn't miss that," said his cousin, Marilyn Dykstra.
        Just before 10 p.m., he was headed home on a road he had taken often -- Wilson Avenue SW, near Johnson Park in Walker.
        "He was just minding his own business," said his cousin, John Dykstra, who also lives next door to the victim. "He's just driving home and here comes a guy over the hill."
        Records show a motorist watched as Garcia-Miron swerved "continuously" on southbound Wilson Avenue SW, just before crossing into Dykstra's northbound lane.
        When police arrived, Garcia-Miron smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared off-balance, police wrote in an affidavit.
        His driving record lists five moving violations since 2004, including speeding and running a stop sign, according to the Secretary of State.
Why wasn't the obviously dangerous foreigner checked for his immigration status and deported? Sadly, this tragic death of a beloved grandfather could have been prevented by proper functioning of law enforcement.

•   •   •  

Foreign-Born Make Up One in Six Workers in U.S., Report Shows   [12/08/09]
This just in from the Census Bureau: in a time of record unemployment, America has a record number of foreign-born workers occupying jobs.

    Almost one in six people in the U.S. workforce in 2007 was foreign-born, the highest portion in at least 80 years, an analysis from the Census Bureau showed.
        Immigration policies had cut the size of the foreign-born labor force from about 19 percent of workers in 1920 to 5.2 percent in 1970, the agency said in the report yesterday. Policy changes starting in the 1960s have led to a "new wave of immigration," pushing the current level to about 16 percent, according to the report.
        Economic opportunity is a primary attraction for many immigrants to the U.S., and there are a greater number of foreign-born workers in the country than ever, the agency said in the report. Every industry group in the economy employs such workers, the agency said.
        The foreign-born participated in the labor force at a higher rate than the native-born, the analysis showed.
        Foreign-born workers were more likely to be male than native-born workers, more often less educated, and included higher proportions of workers in their late twenties and early thirties, the report said.
The Census' report is available here: The Foreign-Born Labor Force in the United States: 2007.

The chart below is from the Census paper. See the original for footnotes.


•   •   •  

Struggles of the second generation   [12/08/09]
The Washington Post had a rather serious article about the demographic changes facing the country. It features a former gangster, son of illegals, who dropped out of high school and is trying to make something of his life. His prospects don't look promising -- like millions of others on a one-way trip to the permanent hispanic underclass.
    There are statistics included to make sense of the dire demography.

    Largely because of the growth of this second generation, Latino immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren will represent almost a third of the nation's working-age adults by mid-century, according to projections from U.S. Census Bureau data by Jeffrey S. Passel, a demographer with the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
        Not since the last great wave of immigration to the United States around 1900 has the country's economic future been so closely entwined with the generational progress of an immigrant group. And so far, on nearly every measure, the news is troubling.
        Second-generation Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate -- one in seven -- of any U.S.-born racial or ethnic group and the highest teen pregnancy rate. These Latinos also receive far fewer college degrees and make significantly less money than non-Hispanic whites and other second-generation immigrants.
        Their struggles have fueled an outcry for stricter immigration laws, with advocates saying that the rapid increase in Latino immigrants and their children has strained the United States' resources and social fabric.
        "The last 30 years of immigration have made our country more unequal, poorer than we would have been otherwise, more fractious and less cohesive," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors tighter restrictions on immigration.
The graphs are sobering, particularly this one that shows the cultural divide between hispanic underachievers and other immigrants (like Asians, who arrive and attend the same schools but are successful):


•   •   •  

Binghamton Student Says He Warned Officials   [12/07/09]
A 46-year-old Saudi graduate student, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, stabbed a retired professor to death on Friday, and there are many questions to be answered. One is whether university officials ignored warning signs about violence because of political correctness (as apparently happened in the Virginia Tech massacre of dozens, where the killer was cut endless slack even after arson and stalking young women).

    VESTAL, N.Y. - In this small upstate college town, there were many who tried to comprehend how a popular 77-year-old professor who championed antiwar philosophies would have come to such a violent end: stabbed to death in his office on Friday, by, the police said, a graduate student whom he knew.
        Then there were those who said they had noticed signs of erratic behavior by the suspect, a graduate student at Binghamton University, who, they said, was becoming increasingly fearful - so much so that his roommate said he had warned university officials of his concerns.
        The suspect, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, 46, remained held without bail on Sunday, charged with second-degree murder in the death of the professor, Richard T. Antoun.
        The two knew each other through Binghamton's graduate program, where the professor served on the dissertation committee for Mr. Zahrani, who is from Saudi Arabia.
        On Sunday, Mr. Zahrani's roommates - who had lived with him for about three weeks in a three-bedroom apartment in downtown Binghamton - recounted how the suspect, who spoke of financial problems, often mentioned death and said he was being persecuted because he was Muslim.
        "I said he was acting oddly, like a terrorist," said one of the roommates, Souleymane Sakho, a graduate student from Senegal. "When I informed them, it was for them to understand that the guy was violent or he may be violent."
DR. RICHARD T. ANTOUN: REMEMBERED BY FRIENDS

Also, you have to wonder whether the killer was one of George Bush's 20,000 Saudi students (I can't find a date for Zahrani's enrollment.) At the time, I warned that Bush's ill considered poicy would endanger Americans for a silly idea, that exposing Saudis to American culture would make them less hostile. BS.
    Remember that many of the 9/11 hijackers had plenty of exposure to the West, e.g. leader Mohamed Atta, who had studied architecture at a German university, and Ziad Jarrah, who attended a Catholic school in Lebanon. The power of the dark side is strong.

•   •   •  

U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat   [12/07/09]
For years, the pro-immigration cheerleaders insisted that America did immigrant assimilation better than Europe, so there was no reason to fear Muslim immigrants turning into bombers. However, recent events have made that fable difficult to maintain, e.g. the Fort Hood Islam-inspired mass murder, the dozens of Somali residents returning home to wage jihad, and the arrests of Qaeda-connected terrorists (e.g. Najibullah Zazi).
    There has definitely been an uptick in the last year; do bad guys see the weak, Islam-friendly President as a sign to go ahead?

    Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm. But the number, variety and scale of recent U.S. cases suggest 2009 has been the most dangerous year domestically since 2001, anti-terrorism experts said:
    •   There were major arrests of Americans accused of plotting with Al Qaeda and its allies, including an Afghan American charged in a New York bomb plot described as the most serious threat in this country since the Sept. 11 attacks.
    •   Authorities tracked other extremism suspects joining foreign networks, including Somali Americans going to the battlegrounds of their ancestral homeland and an Albanian American from Brooklyn who was arrested in Kosovo.
    •   The FBI rounded up homegrown terrorism suspects in Dallas, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C., saying that it had broken up plots targeting a synagogue, government buildings and military facilities.
        Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued her strongest public comments yet on the homegrown threat.
        "We've seen an increased number of arrests here in the U.S. of individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, or supporting terror groups abroad such as Al Qaeda," Napolitano said in a speech in New York. "Home-based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront."
Other quotes are surprisingly truthful as well:
    "You are seeing the full spectrum of the threats you face in terrorism," former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
        "Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber, director of analysis for the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. "In years past, you couldn't say that about the U.S. You could say it about Europe." [...]
        "People focused on the idea that we're different, we're better at integrating Muslims than Europe is," said Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "But there's radicalization -- especially among converts [and] newcomers, such as the Somali case shows. I think young U.S. Muslims today are as prone to radicalization as Muslims in Europe." [...] "You can be middle-class and have bright prospects but become a jihadist," [scholar Farhad Khosrokhavar] said. "We have to broaden the analysis. This idea of American exceptionalism, the comparison with Europe, should not blind us to the fact that we are going toward a broader participation in jihad."
However, the sensible idea of ending Muslim immigration does not appear.

•   •   •  

Zulu king wins South Africa bull-killing case   [12/06/09]
In South Africa, bull sacrifice is apparently highly valued, and a brutal-sounding custom was recently decided in court to be acceptable.

    A bull-killing ritual can go ahead on Saturday after a court ruled against an animal rights group which tried to have the practice banned in South Africa.
        The bull is killed during the Ukushwama ritual, an annual thanksgiving event in Kwa-Zulu Natal, in which youngsters kill the animal using their hands.
        Animal Rights Africa took the Zulu king and the government to court over the manner in which the bull is killed. [...]
        ARA claimed that the killing took some 40 minutes and involved dozens of men trampling on the beast as they tried to break its neck.
        The organisation described the killing as "cruel and protracted".


"Animal sacrifice is a vital part of life for many South Africans"

In a possibly related item, the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament to be held in South Africa may have similar rituals: World Cup to be "blessed" with slaughtered cows.

    This was the week in which FIFA chief Sepp Blatter laughed at poor old Ireland, Avram Grant was likened to Yoda, Manchester City were rebranded as Manchester United, Arsene Wenger spat the dummy and South Africa proposed to slaughter a cow at every World Cup venue.
How welcoming of the South Africans to share local customs with visitors. After all, soccer is arguably the most diverse sport -- it is played around the world with great passion, as shown by a recent ruckus in France: Angry Algerians Rumble in Marseille over Cairo Soccer Loss.

•   •   •  

Mixteco-speaking immigrants struggle to make a life near Othello   [12/06/09]
This article from Washington state may reveal more than the reporter intended about the cultural chasm between some "immigrants" and our own society. Also, they come to America for the money only.
    How diverse are Mixtecs? Many don't speak Spanish which indicates they were not assimilated to the majority culture of their home country. This group is another addition to the permanent immigrant underclass of Mexicans, whose rejection of education assimilation (even several generations along) assures their lack of success.
    Oh, and there's no mention in the article of the Mixtecs' immigration status. Are we supposed to assume lawfulness? It would manke no sense given the history of this tribe and Mexicans generally.

    OTHELLO, Wash. -- In a bleak housing project west of this small rural town, the Mexican farm workers living here murmur to each other in a dialect many of them don't want their children to learn.
        It's called Mixteco, one of the dozens of dialects spoken by Latin America's indigenous people.
        For these immigrants, Spanish is a second language. Many don't speak it.
        "I want my children to learn Spanish," said Isabel Reyes, a 31-year-old who speaks to them in broken Spanish. "And English. I want them to go to school and get good jobs so they don't have to work in the fields like we do."
Nice priorities -- Spanish, then English. For the money, not to join the American community.
    Indigenous people like her are the Native Americans of Mexico and Central America.
        They have been coming to the United States for as long as Mexicans have been immigrating here -- although in dramatically higher numbers over the past three decades.
        Nationwide, the federal government estimates that 17 percent of farm workers are indigenous.
        They first arrived in California -- at least 500,000 indigenous Mexicans still live there -- and slowly migrated north into Oregon and Washington, following other Mexican immigrants to jobs in agriculture and restaurants.
        Now, their migration has brought them over the Cascades and into Eastern Washington, mostly to Othello, Quincy and Mattawa.
        Only a few dozen Mixteco-speaking immigrants live in the Yakima Valley.
        Othello, with a population of about 5,800, is home to the state's highest concentration of Mixtecos.
        As many as 800 people from the highlands of southern Mexico live here -- often in cold, cramped duplexes and mobile homes outside of the city's quiet downtown.
Some of these Mexican tribal people are quite diveerse, as I learned when researching the case of the illegal alien father residing in central California who sold his 14-year-old daughter for a stash of beer and other beverages. He is a member of the Triqui tribe, which has other colorful marriage practices, including kidnapping and polygamy ("Grapes of Wrath' south of the border)...
    Indians have brought with them a number of traditions that grated against life outside Oaxaca. One of them was courting. Indian courting can look a lot like kidnapping and statutory rape. Men take wives, literally. Sometimes they run off with them. Sometimes the wives are well under 18. Arranged marriages are common. Triquis are known to practice polygamy and sometimes to sell wives.
Now how is it we are supposed to benefit from this diversity???

•   •   •  

9/11 families rally against NYC terror trials   [12/05/09]
A spirited demonstration was held Saturday in New York City to protest the Attorney General's decision to hold a civil trial there rather than go with the military tribunals that Congress created for that purpose.

    Several hundred people rallied in the rain near Manhattan's federal courthouse complex today to protest the plan to put major terrorism suspects on trial in New York City.
        Demonstrators at the Saturday event included the actor Brian Dennehy and a number of people who lost friends and relatives in the 9/11 attacks.
        Anger at the Obama administration ran hot in the crowd. One person held up a sign calling Attorney General Eric Holder "disgraceful and despicable." Another sign said "Obama/Holder ... Jihad from within."
        Opponents of the plan say that a New York trial could again make the city a terrorism target, and that the five suspects should instead face a military tribunal.
To see a great bunch of photos of the event, check out Urban Infidel. Below is a short video from the same source.

•   •   •  

Prison for driver who killed girl   [12/05/09]
The illegal alien whose reckless driving caused the death of four-year-old Josie Bluhm (pictured) was sentenced on Friday. The good news is that Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa got the maximum prison term; the bad news is that it's only six years.
    He crashed into the Bluhm vehicle after he ran a red light driving with no license on the way to the job he held unlawfully. He had been arrested three times for drunk driving but was not deported.

    A solemn Douglas County District Judge J Russell Derr sentenced Rangel-Ochoa to 32 months to six years years in prison the maximum sentence for misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide and for felony driving while he was suspended.
        Rangel-Ochoa, 27, ran a red light about 7:30 a.m. May 12 crashing a truck into a van driven by Jayme Bluhm and carrying the Bluhms' three children.
        Josie's father, Kyle, and mother, Jayme, tearfully talked about their bubbly daughter. With her blonde-hair and a button nose, their middle child had an infectious personality.
        Jayme Bluhm had been headed to day care to drop off her children, then ages 5, 4 and 1. The collision ejected Josie, 4, and caused her death.
        Josie's then-5-year-old brother and best friend, Cayden, suffered six broken bones in the crash.
        Rangel-Ochoa, an illegal immigrant, had lost his license for 15 years after his third drunken-driving conviction in 2003.
        He wasn't drunk on May 12 hence the misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide charge.
        The case sparked concern about why Rangel-Ochoa hadn't been deported after his 2003 conviction. His previous attorney has said that immigration officials now are more stringent and that Rangel-Ochoa wouldn't be treated with such leniency today. He likely will face deportation after he serves his sentence.


Josie's parents, Kyle and Jayme Bluhm (above), spoke about the heartache of losing their beloved little girl, like setting the table for four instead of five. Josie had thought she wanted to be a teacher like her dad, but all those plans for the future are gone now.

See my original report: Illegal Alien Causes Crash: Little Girl Dead in Omaha

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Secret Service: No more threats against Obama than Bush, Clinton   [12/04/09]
There's nothing like a nice Congressional hearing to help puncture convenient myths. Now we learn that Obie has been no more threatened than his predecessors.

    President Barack Obama is not facing more threats to his life or security than the previous two presidents, according to the Secret Service.
        At a hearing Thursday, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said "the threats right now in the inappropriate interest that we are seeing is the same level as it has been for the previous two presidents at this point."

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Helping Mexico Help Itself   [12/04/09]
This largely good article is a reminder that otherwise intelligent people can recognize the symptoms of a problem, but still don't understand how the size and stubborn intractability of culture means that easy solutions are not possible.

    Mexico's problems have not changed much in 500 years. The country has never managed to organize itself into a liberal democracy founded on the habit of inquiry, an engaged citizenry, and the rule of law. Its people endured centuries of domination as a colony of Spain, decades of war and tyranny after independence, and a decade-long revolution, begun in 1910, that killed 2 million people and replaced one autocracy with another. For the rest of the century, power was concentrated in an immense political corporationthe Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)and in a succession of presidents who ruled like kings. Even the PRI's defeat in 2000 by Vicente Fox and the conservative National Action Party (PAN) has not brought much democracy: its main effect has been to weaken the presidency and to set off a free-for-all among political parties, state governments, and the big unions, bureaucracies, and businesses that control them. Unchecked by executive power, these institutions are authoritarian, averse to change, and corrupt; Mexicans joke that theirs is the first country in history to move from monarchy backward to feudalism.
That's a pretty damning assessment of 500 years of Mexican history, and the writer continues at length in this vein about failing politics, the worst educated students, hopelessly overregulated business, growing drug addiction, continuing cartel violence, general fear of crime, etc.
    Yet author Shepard Barbash (a Houston Chronicle reporter) thinks that more partnership would be a swell thing for the Mexes, and would make them less troublesome for us. That's not much of a payoff for our investment, which has no assurance of success. (Calderon's war against the cartels is not going that well despite Washington's generosity in helping.)
    More broadly, the best way to strengthen Mexico and ease the pressure of illegal immigration is to stimulate free trade and investment to promote the continent's competitiveness. The goal should be to create regional mechanisms like NAFTA that are accountable to each country's people but that strengthen Mexico's institutions in a range of areas, including economic regulation, competition, and monetary policy.
        America should also continue to help Mexico fight the drug cartels. Calderon has won support from the U.S. Congress, which last year approved $1.4 billion in security aid for Mexico, and from President Obama, who has stepped up efforts to interdict illegal weapons and cash flowing into Mexico from the U.S.
        We could increase support, too, for Calderon's effort to build a competent national police force. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which has given grants that are stimulating judicial reforms in Chihuahua and other states, might fund efforts to improve how states and municipalities screen, train, deploy, monitor, and reward their security forces. We might also consider funding border cities or states to work with their neighbors in the U.S. to prevent smuggling, illegal immigration, and crime.
Why do these brilliant solutions to Mexico's problems always involve large expenditures of American tax money? Mexico is rich (now ranking #13 in the world for GDP) and could easily invest in its own development, but has become accustomed to receiving the benificence of Uncle Sucker. Why should they change, particularly now with spendaholics installed in Washington?
    Despite many efforts to help a malajusted neighbor, America should realize its geography is unlucky, situated as it is next door to the new narco-hub of the Western Hemisphere. Any money expended concerning Mexico should be for a bigger wall and more border enforcement.

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Recovering stolen jobs is key to American recovery   [12/03/09]
This idea is taking way too long to filter out through the media.
    Rep. Lamar Smith lays down the simple numbers:

    If President Barack Obama could snap his fingers and create 8 million new jobs, would you want him to do it? I would. And certainly the 15 million unemployed Americans would, as well.
        The good news is that the president can do just that - implement a policy that opens up 8 million jobs.The bad news is that he won't.
        Four weeks ago, after the administration announced that the unemployment rate had hit 10.2 percent and 190,000 jobs were lost in October alone, 21 of my colleagues and I wrote to the president to recommend enforcing current immigration laws to open up jobs for citizens and legal immigrants.The White House has yet to respond.
        And this week, notably absent from the president's jobs summit is any discussion of how to take back the 8 million jobs currently occupied by illegal immigrants and make them available to out-of-work U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.
        Instead, the Obama administration has taken the opposite approach to the stolen-jobs problem.Rather than ensuring that American jobs are reserved for legal workers, the administration continues to pursue amnesty.But legalizing 11 million illegal immigrants will only further harm American workers, making it harder for citizens and legal immigrants to get and keep long-term jobs.
Meanwhile, the President is holding a mega-PR stunt, er, job summit today, with no spokespersons for this viewpoint. In the interests of fair and balanced, there's no indication that the alternative Republican meeting will consider busting the millions of illegal alien job thieves either.

Rep. Steve King made a statement supporting enforcement at the recent "American Jobs in Peril" forum (transcript).

Steve Camarota is the research wizard at CIS and presented a large selection of statistics about employment.

There are other videos of statements from the November 26 hearing at CIS's YouTube channel -- lots of good stuff.

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Outrage on Swiss minaret vote, but how do Muslim states handle churches?   [12/02/09]
The big hint is don't plan on attending church during your next Saudi vacation.
    Yep, the Muslims are squawking big decibels about the Swiss vote banning minarets. One example beyond the usual noise: a Turkish minister has called for a boycott of Swiss banks.
    But in the vast reaches of Allahstan, churches are largely verboten or highly restricted.

    1. Indonesia. In a state with large minority populations of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists, the US State department reported in 2009 that at least 9 churches and 12 mosques associated with the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect (which mainstream Muslim groups consider heretical) were forced shut by violence or intimidation from community groups, and that a number of churches and Hindu temples have struggled to receive official permits in recent years. The Indonesian government has on a number of occasions stepped in to prevent church construction, largely over fears that it would stoke sectarian violence. But religious practice, by and large, is freer in Indonesia than most other Muslim majority states.

    2. Egypt. The country has a sizeable minority of Eastern Orthodox Christians, or Copts. By law, their churches must receive the permission of local Muslim communities before new construction is allowed. The State Department's religious freedom report on Egypt in 2009 says in part: "Church and human rights leaders complain that many local officials intentionally delay the permit process. They charge that some local authorities refuse to process applications without 'supporting documents' that are virtually impossible to obtain."

Curiously, the lefty Huffpo blog has a thoughtful commentary on the vote: The Real Reasons Why the Swiss Voted to Ban Minarets.
    A majority of Swiss voters obviously feels that there are problems with Muslim integration into civil society at the moment. This vague sentiment was fueled by a number of incidents over the last years: The former Imam of a mosque in Geneva, Hani Ramadan, a Swiss citizen by the way, publicly justified the stoning of adulterers or the punitive amputation of the hand of a thief. Muslim parents prevented their daughters from attending swimming classes, gymnastics or summer camps in public schools because they didn't want their girls to be together with boys. Media reports about forced marriages, female genital mutilations and "honor killings" of Muslim women - all confirmed by authorities or in court -- came as a shocking surprise. A university professor even went as far as to suggest in an official publication of a federal commission to introduce elements of the Sharia, the Muslim legal system, into Switzerland. [...]
        It would be utterly wrong -- and dangerous -- to think that this was primarily a racist vote. I'm convinced that the post-electoral analysis will show that a significant part of the (anti-racist) left and an overwhelming majority of the women supported the ban -- not because they are afraid of minarets, but because they are worried about the role (some would say: about the oppression) of women in Islamic societies and about the role of religion in public life. This is, in my opinion, an entirely legitimate discussion that we have to have and must not suppress.
It's a promising sign that European women are rejecting kumbaya propaganda about diversity and recognizing the danger that political Islam represents. Burqas are chains.


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Black Market Butchers Continue Killing Pet Horses   [12/01/09]
Several arrests have been made since September for the horribly brutal slaughter of horses in south Florida to feed the diverse tastes of immigrants. But the incarceration of a few won't stop this crime: there is too much money to be made for killing a family's pet horse and selling the meat.
    In fact, blackmarket horse meat is increasing in value, perhaps because of the crackdown. In July, the black-market price was reported to be $7-$20 per pound (Horse slaughters have Miami-area owners on edge), and now the street value is $40 for that amount, meaning an entire animal can bring $8000 for a night's cruelty.

    [SPCA investigator Richard] Couto said it's a third world custom, where horse meat is not only a delicacy but a magic elixir.
        "They think that horse meat is a cure-all, that it's going to cure blood disorders," said Couto. "It's going to cure AIDS -- that it helps with the side effects from chemotherapy." [...]
        "My horse was tied to a palm tree," said Ivonne Rodriguez. "His throat was slit, OK? And he wasn't dead when they were taking meat off his body."
        Ivonne Rodriguez wants justice for Geronimo. Four people have been arrested so far.
        Santiago Cabrera and Luis Miguel Cordero admitted they sat on the horses and held their mouths closed while they butchered them alive.
Watch the accompanying video from the TV report: Horse Meat Black Market Delicacy.

One of the admirable facets of Western civilization that is little appreciated by its inhabitants is the abhorrence toward animal cruelty, a cultural value that is not shared in much of the world.
    In some places, gratuitous brutality is regarded as fun or sporting, as in parts of China and the Philippines where bloody horse-fighting is popular. Animals that are injured are often butchered and barbecued for the crowd.
    In Mexico, horse meat is commonly eaten, and Mexican slaughterhouses are known for their cruel methods of dispatching the animals.
    For more about diverse harm toward innocent creatures, see my 2006 article Diversity Is Strength! It's Also... Cruelty To Animals

•   •   •  

Obama aunt anguished by separation   [12/01/09]
The President's illegal alien aunt is back, complaining now about her distraught emotional state while she continues to live rather well on the backs of the taxpayers. Zeituni Onyango lives in comfortable subsidized housing in Boston and dresses quite nicely for a welfare case. She is also an alien absconder who was ordered deported but failed to leave.
    She grumbles about being cut off from her only American relatives -- the ones who reside in the White House -- although she has plenty of family back home in Kenya. (Polygamy does spawn lots of kinfolk.)

    Onyango, the half sister of Obama's late father, said she has exiled herself from the family after attending Obama's inauguration because she didn't want to become fodder for his foes. Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.
        "Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all," said Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.
        The Obamas are her only family in the United States, she said.
        "It is very sad when such a thing happens. There are people, outsiders, you know, they come in between, they divide a family," she said last week. "It's not easy."
        Onyango, 57, is protective of Obama and said she never asked him to intervene in her case and didn't tell him about her immigration difficulties.
She does't have to beg for more goodies from her nephew: the system is already abuser-friendly. The judge knows who she is and doesn't want any mysterious trouble. That's why he postponed her asylum hearing until February, probably hoping that something would turn up to rescue him.
    Plus, Auntie Mooch lives in Massachusetts, where one of the President's pals is governor. Deval Patrick is not about to cut the woman's benefits.
    Onyango helped care for the president's half brothers and sister while living with Barack Obama Sr. in Kenya. She moved to the United States in 2000 and applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004.
        However, she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston. She had been a health care volunteer but not since her status became public. She refused to discuss how she affords to live now or who is paying for her attorney. [...]
        Her attorney, Margaret Wong, said Onyango first applied for asylum because of violence in Kenya, an East African nation fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years. People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
        Immigration experts say Onyango's relationship to the president could strengthen her claim that she would be subjected to danger at home.
Ridiculous. None of the President's many African relatives have had any difficulties at all. In fact, their celebrity is rewarded; for instance Obie's grandmother was recently invited to celebrate the hajj in Mecca.

Aunt Zeituni put out some sniffles for her AP interview, below...

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