Immigrant Called "Racist" For Supporting Legal Immigration

It looks like the Governator has chimed in on the Minuteman Project, praising its effectiveness in slowing illegal immigration from Mexico, and adding that the federal government isn't doing its job. "It's a shame that the private citizen has to go in there and start patrolling our borders," Schwarzenegger said.

Other, more clueless folks saw it differently. From the Los Angeles (California) Times:

The leader of a Mexican American group called the governor's comments "shameful" and "nothing short of base racism."

"I think we're seeing the real Arnold Schwarzenegger. The mask has now fallen," said Nativo V. Lopez, state national [ed: "state national"? glad to see those editors are up to the task at the Times] president of the Mexican American Political Assn. "Those of immigrant stock should have no illusions about what his real sentiments and feelings are toward them."

Yes Mr. Lopez, Gov. Schwarzenegger, himself an immigrant, made his point perfectly clear. He wants people to follow the law and immigrate legally, and for the federal government to provide adequate border security.

It is too bad, Mr. Lopez, that your organization and others like it are apparently more for breaking the law, against co-operating with law enforcement, and against hiring police officers, than you are interested in coming up with intelligent solutions to a problem that costs legal citizens of this country, including Hispanic-Americans, billions each year.

Update: Outside the Beltway is all over this as well.

Breaking The Code

"Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn."

So said General Douglas MacArthur in his unforgettable farewell speech to the cadets of the U.S Military Academy at West Point on May 12, 1962.

Duty. Honor. Country.

The Code. These are the words the Long Gray Line has lived by in blue and grey, khaki, and camoflage, for over two hundred years. That code is in jeopardy now, as the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, never defeated in battle, is poised to surrender the Code to the selfish desires of men playing children's games.

Cadets join the academy for an excellent education, and in return commit to serve five years in uniform for their country, though many stay far longer. The USMA now would cheapen that commitment by making a rule change for athletic recruiting purposes, cutting short a cadet's commitment to his country if he commits instead to the self-aggrandizing world of professional sports. The selfish individualism of this proposal is against the core beliefs the cadets at West Point are taught to believe in.

Cadets join--or should join-- the U.S. Military Academy to serve their country and become leaders of men. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of universities that serve the more puerile needs of sports fanatics; few of them have national service as their heart, nor duty part of their soul. Yet, the Army seems willing to compromise Duty for the base edification of the selfish individual desires of boys who want to play games for money.

The tearing away of West Point's core ideology of "Duty. Honor. Country." would service the greed of a few vainglorious individuals at the expense of the selfless Corps.

A few athletes each decade might succeed for several meager seasons as a pro athlete after betraying the core values of West Point, while thousands of real cadets who joined the Corps for the right reasons graduate, live and die honorably serving out their commitments, sacrificing themselves for our freedoms on distant hostile shores.

Some say this betrayal of values is a winner for the Black Knights of West Point. They see this as a "groundbreaking rule to improve Black Knights football." They are wrong to trample on the soul of West Point in hopes of recruiting a few athletes to add a few victories to meaningless win columns. We need more people like Pat Tillman, people willing to serve their country instead of themselves. We don't need to tear these values away from one of the few institutions that still hold them in their proper place.

There are much more important victories to be gained that require far more sacrifice. West Point used to know this. It is not too late to remind them.

Rumor-mongering

Some are speculating that Bush's impromptu prime-time address tonight might be more than about Social Security.

Actually, I have sources that tell me that "he" was actually captured. Alive.

My guess is that they'll reveal that he snuck over an unguarded U.S./Mexican border (you know, before the vigilantes shut part of it down) and has been "in country" for three years picking cucumbers in California, plotting the destruction of the Clinton Library as revenge for the cigar jockey blowing up his favorite asprin factory in Sudan.

He was only picked up when a Wendy's employee reflectively swung a butcher's knife at him as he swiped a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, severing a finger that curiously, was never recovered.

Cops followed the blood trail to Tim Robbin's house, where "he" was arrested.

The ACLU is now suing Wendy's.

Or at least that's how I heard it.

Update: False alarm. No OBL, dead or alive,was mentioned. That aside, Bush was as good tonight as I have ever seen him. He was articulate, laid out his cases on Social Security and other policies well, and handled the White House Press Corps with grace.

A very strong showing. Tigerhawk live-blogged it, and is well worth the read.

Make Money, Screw Your Friends

We get letters, we get letters, we get lots and lots of...

Well, we don't actually gets lots of letters, but we do get more than you'd expect for a "B" list blog, including this gem on behalf of the California GOP.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is [name withheld] and I work for a company called Mohre Communications [sic] we have been hired by the Republican Party to get out there new rewards Credit Card. You can read more about the program at www.cagop.org <http://www.cagop.org>. The GOP needs the help of conservative bloggers to place advertisements on their sites. You can read more information and get link to sign people up at <http://posse.mohre.com/>.

Thank you,

[name withheld]

Isn't it delicious?

Republicans just pushed through a pro-shareholder bill which strips away bankruptcy protection from most Americans in favor of a predatory industry, and then asks bloggers such as myself to shill for them to apply for more credit card debit.

Yes, nothing says lovin' like putting you in a hole and pulling away the ladder.... at least according to Buffalo Bill.

What's next, the National Right to Life Committee selling RU-486 as a fundraiser?

Sorry, California GOP, but I'm not buying (or selling) this one.

A Parent's Right to Know

You've got to give it to the NY Times and the Associated Press; they don't waste any time going for spin in an early version of the lede of this story:

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would make it illegal to dodge parental-consent laws by taking minors across state lines for abortions, the latest effort to chip away at abortion rights (emphasis added) after Republican gains in the November elections.

Perhaps this is just the reaction of a father, but I viewed this bill (and apparently so did the House by a 270-157 vote) as an issue of parental rights, not so much a strike against Roe v. Wade. It really is that simple: if my minor child is having surgery, any surgery, it is my right as a parent to know about it.

Period.

Perhaps what we should be asking is why 145 Democrats, 11 Republicans and 1 Independent feel that it should be acceptable for strangers to smuggle our minor children over state lines to perform elective surgical procedures.

Update: The NY Times changed their original story and lede on this subject from an AP piece (lede above, full story used here) to this one:

The House passed a bill on Wednesday making it a federal crime for any adult to transport an under-age girl across state lines to have an abortion without the consent of her parents. A vote on a similar bill is expected in the Senate later this spring or early this summer, and backers says its chances are good.

Perhaps they were concerned they were exposing their bias a bit too early?

Update 2: The AP has followed the NY Times in dumping the original lede. Apparently, AP writer Laurie Kellman's original lede was too biased for both the AP and the NY Times. I wonder how often that happens?

Gun Nuts

Liberal calls for violence against the President never seem to end. This excerpt of an audio clip directed at President Bush is from The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America, and has the Secret Service investigating:

The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."

The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show.

"What is with all the killing?" Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired.

I wonder if Rhodes would be laughing if someone had made threats against Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, or other liberal politicians. I doubt it. If a conservative uttered such sentiments against John Kerry, Randi Rhodes would be screaming bloodly murder.

Instead of screaming bloody murder, Rhodes seems to be promoting it, and this is not the first time (h/t: Michelle Malkin). Rhoes is just part of a liberal cycle of violence. The liberals keep upping their hate-filled rhetoric and soon enough, they'll spur another liberal assassin like they have so many times in the past.

This isn't an issue of freedom of speech, this is an issue of incitement to murder, one that prosecutors and courts should take seriously.

Maurice Hinchey: The New Tom Delay?

Sometimes, it is simply better to point out those who said it best rather than trying to say it yourself, though GOP and the City has a great take on it as well. According to the Post:

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey is New York's king of comped travel — racking up a stunning $161,393 tab footed by special-interest groups, the fifth most of any federal lawmaker.

The Ulster County Democrat has taken 25 trips during the past five years to such far-flung, chic locales as Prague, Rome, Moscow, Shanghai and Morocco — courtesy of private groups intent on influencing the congressman.

That sounds every bit as suspect as the charges Democrats are leveling at Tom Delay, who has been blasted by Democrats on a string of supposed ethics violations, incuding some that were legitimately questionable (Hinchey-like junkets) and some that are plainly assinine, such as using family members for political work.

Uh, Bobby Kennedy working for JFK, anyone?

One of these days politicians are going to learn that pigs shouldn't squeal, especially if they happen to be the pigs deepest in the slop.

The Contract On America

Via Just One Minute (h/t Instapundit) we see that the Democrats have finally decided that they must attempt to stand for something, which would seem to be a welcome relief from their previous "Bushitlerjoooos!" platform. Harry Reid's Promise of America offers a platform based on nine bills the Democrats have introduced to the Senate. Let's take a quick look at the Democrats Contract on America, shall we?

1. Women's Health Care. “The Prevention First Act of 2005” will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions by increasing funding for family planning and ending health insurance discrimination against women.

The key words of this plan to watch are "increasing funding" which means increasing taxes. If Democrats really wanted to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions, perhaps they should quit supporting recreational abortions: those abortions due to those too lazy, too stoned, or too stupid to use birth control knowing that they can easily get an abortion later. Of course, this would require personal responsibility, so don't look for any Democratic support.

2. Veterans' Benefits. “The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2005” will assist disabled veterans who, under current law, must choose to either receive their retirement pay or disability compensation.

Sounds great, the concept of taking care of our disabled troops. Of course, if the Democrats haven't consistently fought against military spending for decades on end, then some of these veterans may not have been disabled to begin with. Again, this plan would almost certainly involve a raise in taxes.

3. Fiscal Responsibility. Democrats will move to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and extend the pay-as-you-go requirement.

Reid forgets to mention that a Democrat's idea of "fiscal discipline" is to raise your taxes as much as it takes to pay for all their new proposed entitlement programs.

4. Relief at the Pump. Democrats plan to halt the diversion of oil from the markets to the strategic petroleum reserve. By releasing oil from the reserve through a swap program, the plan will bring down prices at the pump.

This will not bring down prices at the pump. What will reduce prices at the pump it to build new refineries and allow more exploration and drilling at sites where exploration has paid off, both of which the Democrats are against.

5. Education. Democrats have a bill that will: strengthen head start and child care programs, improve elementary and secondary education, provide a roadmap for first generation and low-income college students, provide college tuition relief for students and their families, address the need for math, science and special education teachers, and make college affordable for all students.

Making college affordable for all students, including those of illegal aliens, Mr. Reid forgets to mention, which is what Democrats are pushing in several states as we speak. If the Democrats want to improve the quality of education, they should push to an end of teacher's unions and tenure. This plan, as you may guess, involves throwing more of your federal tax dollars down a hole.

6. Jobs. Democrats will work in support of legislation that guarantees overtime pay for workers and sets a fair minimum wage.

When an artificial minimum wage goes up, inflation goes up to match it. Democrats have never been very good at economics.

7. Energy Markets. Democrats work to prevent Enron-style market manipulation of electricity.

Democrats are for more bloated, non-functional bureaucracy in the Department of Energy.

8. Corporate Taxation. Democrats make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes to the U.S. government instead of keeping profits overseas.

Democrats will force even more companies completely offshore, further hindering economic growth and therefore increasing the current deficit.

9. Standing with our troops. Democrats believe that putting America's security first means standing up for our troops and their families.

Since when?

Under Harry Reid's plan, the Democrats plan to raise taxes, increase bureaucracy, and throw more money at already failing Democratic initiatives from previous sessions of congress. The Democrats aren't providing us with an new ideas.

At least they are consistent.

Northern Culture on the Skids

As the Census Bureau notes and Kathleen Parker laments, the South is an increasingly better proposition for most folks. The reasons are simple: better job opportunities, better schools, lower taxes, and much lower real estate costs among other factors.

My wife's family is planning its own southern flight, and offers several case studies for example.

After 9/11, property prices skyrocketed in our community an hour north of NYC as people fled the city for the suburbs, a migration that still continues. Houses appraised at $150,000 in 2001 are appraised at $300,000 or more in 2005. This is great for sellers, but those already in these homes and hoping to stay are challenged with excessive (and rising) property and schools taxes they could not have expected when they budgeted for their homes just a few short years ago.

My wife's brother (We'll call him John) and sister (we'll call her Sue) each have families of their own with children not yet old enough for school. Her parents (We'll call them Bill and Helen) are closing in on retirement. We make four families altogether, living with five miles of one another. These are our stories as they are, and as they may be.

John
John is in a mid-level white collar career, commutes an hour or more each way, every day, and has seen the price of condos in his neighborhood almost double in approximately two years. His taxes have gone up as well. His wife stays home with my infant nephew during the day and works part-time at night. They are getting by, but just barely. There is a distinct chance that if they stay in the area, that both of them will have to work fulltime jobs just to make ends meet, and they will rarely see each other or their new son, who will suddenly add significant childcare costs into the equation (because of necessary fulltime employment), almost negating the second income. It will become increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of taxes if they stay here, and all but impossible for them to move into a house or afford another child.

If John moves his family to either Charlotte or the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) in North Carolina as he has discussed, he could get a comparable job at the same or only slightly less pay, and afford not just a condo, but a much larger home of his own with a nice yard in a good school district while paying far less in taxes, and cutting an hour or more off his total commute every day, while enabling his wife to be a full-time stay-at-home mom for their exsting child and any they may have in the future.

Sue
Sue is a stay-at-home mom with a three-year-old and an infant. Her husband bought a small but nice house several years ago and put a lot of time into making it a wonderful home. He manages a body shop, a recession-proof job that is secure, but one that doesn't have lots of room for rapid vertical growth to keep up with NY taxes. He works six, sometimes seven days a week so that Sue can stay home with their kids, and they are just scraping by.

At the moment, they are looking to move to Florida. His pay won't change much, but he has family there, will make a killing on the sale of his home, and the cost of living is much more affordable if they can learn to adapt to the climate and the possibility of hurricanes. By moving south, he thinks he can continue to provide for his family at the same level of comfort (or better) that they presently enjoy, while cutting back on his hours.

Bill and Helen
Bill is an extraordinary salesman in his field, and Helen was mostly a stay-at-home mom over their bulk of their marriage. They are able to retire, though Bill will probably continue to work for several more years because he truly enjoys what he does. Like their children John and Sue, they own a home that has doubled in value in just a few years, which has made their tax burden oppressive.

They are also tired of New York winters, and have expressed an interest in retiring to North Carolina for years, ever since Bill's parent retired to Pinehurst several decades ago on their own. They could make a handsome profit on their current four-bedroom home in New York, and afford a custom home built for their new retirement lifestyle with plenty left over for a substantial nest egg in a Carolina golf community. Another huge draw would be being nearer their children and grandchildren, and their favorite son-in-law, of course.

Me and the Missus
I'm a North Carolina native, and while I came to really love a lot about New York while I've been here, I can't afford to stay. We were new to the area and renting before 9/11/01, and the rise of housing costs afterward made the possibility of getting a decent home increasingly more remote. Add the fact that my tech-sector focused employment required the bare minimum of an hour commute to Westchester or New York City each way, each day. Compound that with now-sluggish prospects in my field up here in New York, and the Research Triangle Park starts looking really good. I've worked there before and know my commuting times will be halved while my prospects for a nice home in our price range go up astronomically. And pork barbeque. Real BBQ. Enough said.

We are Not Alone
I don't think our cases are out of the ordinary. My daughter's school administrator confirmed she is losing a substantial amount of kids to southern relocation each semester, and mostly for reasons like those cited above.

Increasingly, the middle class is bugging out of tax-hungry northern states for more favorable southern and western climes, and the middle class that remains seems to be coming under increasing stresses from above and below. The truly wealthy know how to shelter their earnings and are more resistant to ever-encroaching tax demands, while the poor tend to contribute very little, if anything at all. That is an untenable long-term situation.

Add to these tax burdens the demands of growing illegal immigrant populations in many of these northern (and western) states with their more liberal public assistance programs, and we see the almost unavoidable possibility of a northern culture in decline, while the best and brightest of the formerly northern middle class head to Atlanta, Charlotte, Birmingham, and Dallas.

I saw a comment scrawled in the dust on the back of an I-95 Southbound New Jersey-registered moving truck a few years ago, and it seemed to sum up the situation perfectly:

"Will the last person out of New York please remember to turn out the light."

I think I can promise you that the last person won't be me.

05/26/05 Update: Confederate Yankee has moved out of New York. Sue's husband has a standing job offer near Miami, and they're planning to move south at the end of the summer. John and his wife are staying put...for now. Bill and Helen are as well.

Celebrate Earthday!

Personally, I'm going to celebrate by driving a couple hundred miles over smog-choked roads paved through woodlands, to interview for a job with a company that puts heavy metals into the environment.

Yay, earth!

Heading South

I'm taking the wife and kid "down home" to North Carolina for a long weekend visiting with the famn damily, so posting may be sporadic until Tuesday or so.

Update: 4 potty stops, 10 hours, 600 miles, and 1300 "Are we there yet"s later, we have arrived.

Dumbest. College. Major. Ever. Except for That One...

You thought underwater basketweaving was stupid? Try getting a Master's in Activism & Social Change, via a thread in The New Editor.

I'm thinking of turning my existing MA into a New College MFA in Creative Inquiry. That way, I can sit around with the Great Unwashed and say, "Dude, WTF?" as a professional.

I don't see "The Donald" picking these guys for The Apprentice, but a future with "The Ronald" seems all but certain.

You Gotta Problem with Papa Ratzi?

I've had it up to here, with punks slamming the new Pope without having their facts straight, so I thought I'd provide a few much needed corrections.

The new Pope was never a Nazi. A Goodfella, but not a Nazi...
Some will tell you he was forced into the Hitler Youth against his will as a teen, but that simply isn't true. Contrary to inaccurate reports in the media, "Papa Ratzi" wasn't born until February 9, 1943, and therefore, was far too young to have served in any aspect in WWII, though I'm sure the Democratic Underground will consider his diapers as evidence of "fascist WMD production."

He is known as "God's Rottweiler."
An ugly, ugly slur, based upon some of his earlier work readjusting the faith of some of those who were having a few problems with their value systems.

You punks leave Papa Ratzi alone. He is not here to amuse you.

Now to help work on the image of Rick James, Hattiesburgh City Council candidate.

Update: Liberal Larry covered the Pesci angle as well, but he was actually funny... if you're into that sort of thing.

Minutemen Open Second Front in War on Illegals

The great thing about the concept of the marketplace of ideas is that good ideas spread.

From the Minuteman Project to the Yuma Patriots to the Friends of the Border Patrol (and the Border Patrol does indeed count these groups as friends), citizens watch programs along the U.S. Mexican border are growing in popularity.

Building on that momentum, James Gilchrist, one of the founders of the Minuteman Project, is opening a second front in the battle against illegal immigration, taking the Minuteman name and some volunteers to California to protest businesses that employ illegal aliens.

This is very cagey timing and a quite intelligent move.

Make no mistake: the workplace is where the battle against illegal immigration will be won or lost. If citizens groups such as the Minuteman Project can use their current popularity to focus the ire of the underemployed American worker on the idea that their jobs are being outsourced in America, then there is a serious chance of creating an environment where hiring illegals (or doing business with companies htat hire illegals) is seen as an unsupportable position by most businesses.

I've got to hand it to the Minutemen; they came to play hardball, and by the time the opposition takes them seriously, supporters of illegal immigration may already be on the ropes.

D.U. Response to Pope Benedict XVI: Maybe we'll get lucky he will "die in his sleep"

It is always fun (well, disturbing) to watch the Democratic Underground respond with paranoia to the world event de jour, and the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope is no different. What follows is a selection of choice tidbits in two threads from the group voted "most likely to flatline an EEG."

he was head of the Inquisition. Enough said for me.

Kind of makes you wonder if cardinals vote on Diebold machines.

Wrote a document in 2000 that denounced other faiths... Great. Just what we need. Warns of the "EVILS" of liberalism. Rigid, intolerant...it just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? The only plus here is that he is 78! Ed: You've got to love DU. Not pope for a day, and they already can't wait for Pope Benedict XVI to die.

Yeah, we got the John Ashcroft of new popes. Ed: Among liberals, being compared to John Ashcroft, a respectful, God-fearing man, is an insult of the highest magnitude.

He is the Grand Inquisitor...No fooling. He heads the Office for Enforcement of the Doctrine of the Faithful, which is the direct successor office to the centuries-old Grand Inquisition. He is therefore the leading hardliner, enforcer and book-censor of the Church, and was JP2's right-hand man...

He used to be a hitler youth.. and practically endorsed GW in his statements on "catholic voting" during our elections... Ed: Hitler Youth = GW Bush support. Why didn't I get that?

Oh goody. Another neocon in power... Ed: Yep, Karl Rove rigged this election, too...

This is BS. Maybe we'll get lucky he will "die in his sleep" like our 33 day "Progressive Pope" John Paul 1st, did.

It's a sad day when the best aspect of a new pope is that he's likely to die soon.

This is very sad news, indeed, for the Catholic church. Once again, the forces of evil triumph...

Hopefully, they'll all die off soon. Ed: Who, Catholics?

Look on the bright side... this ensures that Bush** is not the most fascist leader in the known universe. Berlusconi (out-and-out fascist Fini in cabinet) might have had the edge, but this makes it official.

Whatever else may have been going on in there, I'm reasonably sure that God was not speaking to them, saying "Hey, guys, why not shake things up a little bit? Go for the Nazi!"

And the "Nurse, we need to up his meds" award goes to goclark for:

I knew he would be named. The rest of the names were just ROVE tricks to throw off everyone. He was placed there by the likes of BushCO. It sends a STRONG signal to the non white people of the world that "WHITE POWER" is the name of the game.

It was also a strong signal for WHITES to return to the church and be welcomed with open arms. They don't care about the Hispanics and Africans that are devoting themselves to the church.

It is a sad day for the world in my opinion.

Sad perhaps, but not for the reason you think...

Update: Thanks to Powerline for picking this thread up, and for showing me the Carpe Bonum bio of the new pope that is actually worth reading.

Update 2: More coverage of "Papa Ratzi" here with a bit more mirthful spin to take your mind off the bile of the D.U.

Update 3: WuzzaDem finds that the Kos kids have their own name for the new Pope.

The Damned of the West (part 1)

Go read this interview with the family of American hostage Roy Hallums at the Jawa Report.

The Damned of the West (part 1)

Go read this interview with the family of American hostage Roy Hallums at the Jawa Report.

Aiding and Abetting

While enjoying a nice case of insomnia last night, I flipped over to Scarborough Country on MSNBC and found paleocon Pat Buchanan interviewing the Lynyrd Skynyrd-looking founder of a Minuteman Project-type group called the Yuma Patriots and his son, and the smarmy founder of Border Angels, an illegal alien assistance group.

Flash Sharrar (I couldn't make up a better name) started the Patriots after his son was carjacked and robbed of $700 at gunpoint by a group of illegals when he returned home after eleven months of combat duty in Iraq.

Enrique Morones founded a nonprofit called Border Angels, a group that helps illegal cross dangerous stretchs of the U.S. Mexican border by providing assistance in the form of water stations (in the summer) and clothing drops (in the winter).

Morones was rather smug and self-righteous, and actually had the gall to insist that illegals had the right to cross the border as we wrongly took (I can't remember the exact phrasing) Mexico's land (meaning California, Arizona, etc). Buchanan was quick to call him on this ("Hey Buddy, Mexico invaded us," again not an exact quote).

While watching the segment I began to wonder; why do we provide tax-exempt status and other types of government assistance (through the form or permits) for groups that assist in committing crimes such as Border Angels?

The express goal of Border Angels is to help illegal aliens penetrate this country successfully by easing their illegal entry. We would certainly frown on groups that assist in other forms of human smuggling, so why does group such as Border Angels get a pass?

Border Angels exists to help facilitate a criminal practice, and in doing so assists in making it easier to carry out other illegal enterprises, such as drug and human smuggling. According to the dubious definition provided by the Wikis, this would appear to be racketeering.

It's time to shut them down.

Michael Moore, Here's Your Country

USMC_Vet at The Blue State Conservatives gives us a wonderful example of the kind of law-abiding observers deployed by the ACLU to keep an eye on the very successful Minuteman Project.

And yes, there are pictures:

That isn't a Marlboro being lit and shared by this pair of ACLU-uniformed "Legal Observers" (which is what these shirts say in English and Spanish). The source for this and other pictures is available here. Note that these brilliant people are not not even smart enough to try to conceal their blatantly illegal activity; they are sitting on the side of the road getting high, presumably waiting for a snack truck.

Having these clueless stoners patrol the Mexican border is like having Sean Penn teach gun safety. Michael Moore once asked, "Dude, where's my country?"

Judging by these photos, it must be on the side of the road dreaming of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

No Winners Here

A lot of media attention has been focused on The Minuteman Project, a volunteer neighborhood watch-type effort along the U.S. side of the Arizona/Mexico border. Most of the early MSM/DNC coverage was negative at first, but the coverage has shifted to begrudging respect as the Minutemen have peacefully and effectively shutdown illegal immigration and drug smuggling in the 23-mile zone. The Minuteman Project so far has been an overwhelming success.

Unfortunately, some of that success is being overshadowed by the actions of a Army Reservist almost 300 miles away, who pulled a handgun on seven illegal aliens at an Arizona Interstate rest stop. Sgt. Patrick Haab has been charged with seven felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

There are a lot of details in question in this case, many of which can be reviewed by reading the articles and op-eds here, but a few facts are beyond dispute.

The first fact is that you are not legally justified in pulling a firearm on another person unless that pose a credible threat to your life, or the life of someone else. In none of the descriptions of the situation provided by Haab or local authorities did the illegals pose what most people would consider a credible threat to Haab or to anyone else.

The second fact of justifiable self defense with a firearm (and exact laws vary from state to state) is that the use of the firearm should be defensive in nature, not offensive.

The second the illegals moved away from Haab and entered a nearby vehicle without any threat to Haab, he lost any legal right to use a firearm again them, in any way. The fact that Haab then used his vehicle to block the vehicle occupied by the illegals, and then forced the illegals out of the vehicle and onto the ground, were examples of unjustifiable force using a firearm.

He broke the law. Period.

Perhaps as disturbing as his illegal detention of these seven criminals (and yes, these men were just that, lest that fact be forgotten) is the fact that Haab was armed at all. Haab is apparantly not mentally stable at this time in his life, and is being treated for bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a resulting depression. The very Maricopa County jail holding him had apparently turned him down when he applied for a job as a detention officer because he was "mentally disturbed."

I appreciate the fact that Sgt. Haab served his country in both Kosovo and Iraq, and that he was going to deploy on a volunteer tour of Afghanistan in just a few weeks. I thank him for his service, but if he is still suffering the effects of PTSD and depression, his mental health is compromised and he has no business carrying firearms, at home in defense of himself, or abroad in defense of his country.

A lot of people seem to think Sgt. Haab is a hero. Others, including Haab himself seem to feel he is a victim in a politically-charged case. There is enough room in this case for him to be both, and guilty as well.

In any event, Haab's actions as described were aggressive, illegal, and potentionally deadly, considering his questionable mental health. I'd like to know why our military hospital system thinks it is acceptable to send a soldier suffering from PTSD back to a combat zone when he apparently poses a threat to himself and others. It could be that this Arizona arrest ends up saving his life, or the lives of others.

There are no winners here, but at least there are survivors. Considering what could have happened considering Haab's military training, weaponry and alledged instability, I guess that will have to be enough.

Note: Added to Monday's Beltway Traffic Jam.

Only A Matter of Time: Gov't Goes After Minutemen

It took longer than many thought it might, but the government has finally found a way to inconvenience the overwhelmingly successful Minuteman Project.

USMC_Vet of Blue State Conservatives scoops darn near everyone with this breaking story. Read the whole thing, and be sure to make use of the contact numbers to ask what laws or ordinances are being violated.

Update: Curiouser and curiouser. Cochise County Planning Director James Vlahovich told Dr. Melvin E. Harter, President, Miracle Valley Bible College that he would not issue special use permits (in front of witnesses) before Harter filed for permits, and now Vlahovich is basing his fines on a lack of permits that he categorically rejected in advance of their submittal.

Read the official letter to Miracle Valley Bible College from Cochise County here.

Cochise County is well within their legal rights to levy a fine for non-compliance for zoning violations in most instances, but might be in a bit more dubious position in this particular case if they did, in fact, reject the application before it was even submitted as multiple witnesses alledge. A Catch 22, anyone?

"We Can't Man, Those F***ers are Everywhere!"

The Minuteman Project, a large-scale volunteer neighborhood watch program along 22-23 miles of the U.S./Mexican border, has completed over two full weeks in operation.

The results so far have been disappointing... at least to the bulk of the MSM/DNC and the ACLU, along with illegal immigration advocacy groups such as the White House and Congress.

All of these groups claimed there would be widespread vigilantism by overzealous volunteers, which has not occurred. These groups also claimed there would be potentially violent confrontations with both law enforcement and illegals, none of which has happened since the project started March 30 (one claim was made, and dismissed by local law enforcement).

In fact, the arrest of illegals along the section of border patrolled by the MMP has dropped from approximately 1,000 a day to less than 20 in the past week according to front line border control officers, and the MMP is claiming 268 arrests as the result of watchful volunteers calling the border patrol. CNN is reporting potentially higher numbers, citing the Border Patrol as responding to 317 calls from the Naco and Douglas area netting 846 arrests, though they will not say which of these calls and arrests were made as a result of volunteer activity.

The drop in attempted illegal border crossings and number of volunteer-related apprehensions speaks volumes of the success of the MinuteMan Project, but perhaps the best testimony so far was this two-way radio conversation in Spanish overheard by MMP volunteers between drug dealers in the mountains near Sierra Vista, AZ:

"We've got to get down, to get our loads down!" [Meaning drug loads]
Reply: "We can't, man - those f***ers are everywhere!".

Obviously, Minuteman Project volunteers are not only succeeding in helping an underappreciated and underfunded Border Patrol, but a besieged Drug Enforcement Agency as well.

The tone of media coverage as shifted markedly since the project began, as well. In the days leading up to the start of the volunteer effort, much of the media coverage resembled this two weeks out-of date article crying out against vigilante justice, interference, and potential racism. This view, once dominate in the media, is increasingly giving way to comments such as these:

"Hundreds of Minuteman Project volunteers have done what the president has refused to do: They have helped to effectively halt illegal crossings in a 23-mile section of the Arizona-Mexico border. Volunteers have shown how easy it would be for the U.S. government to do the same." --USA Today

"The chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus yesterday declared the 'Minuteman Project' border vigil a success and invited its organizers to Washington next week to meet with members of Congress." --Washington Times

"The controversy surrounding the Minuteman Project is a poorly crafted red herring.

"The simple, empirical reality is the Minuteman Project has been hugely successful. Illegal border crossings along the stretch of Arizona/Mexico border have virtually been stopped." --American Daily

The Minuteman Project has been so successful in fact, that the Minuteman Project has been swamped with applications by more volunteers than they can handle, forcing them for the time being to encourage volunteers toward similar organizations while the volunteers consider expanding to other areas in border states.

A clueless President Bush, instead of taking steps to strengthen the Border Patrol, instead has ordered a review of a simple requirement to require passports that might impede legal travel across out nation's borders.

Amazingly, he and most other politicians can't seem to be bothered to address illegal travel.

That is certain to change, as illegal immigration is rapidly turning into a major campaign issue for the 2006 mid-term elections. Illegal immigration and the unwarranted amnesty of illegal aliens are emerging, defining issues where voters may very well be willing to cross party lines to regain control of the border and their nation. Members of the House and Senate would be wise to heed their constituents if they hope to remain in office.

Inciting Murder

Enough is enough.

Liberals are growing increasingly violent. They've gone from rude and boorish behavoir, to petty assault, to calls for suicide, to subtle calls for murder (read as "end Bush," see note below), to outright calls for politically-motivated homicide. These people are tacitly and sometimes enthusiastically accepted within their reality-based community, but they should not be allowed to function in real reality.

The people behind these examples of hate speech (and make no mistake, that is exactly what these examples are) must be found, investigated, and if necessary, prosecuted before they finally incite some mentally unstable person to commit murder, no doubt in the name of "peace."

These people are going to get people killed, most likely innocent bystanders. It is time for the Secret Service and the FBI to stop being politically correct and put an end to the rising tide of violence from the reality-challenged community.

Note: The owner of the Cafepress.com site with the "End Bush" HTML-style code not-so-cleverly tries to call this a "Closing Bush" tag, which in addition to not making grammatical sense, doesn't even follow good HTML form. HTML tags are noted as "start and "end" tags according to the W3C.

Update: Over at Right Thinking Girl's Tom Delay post (linked above), we've come up with quite the comparison of left vs. right violence. I first chimed in with an partial listing of assassinations and assassination attempts by political leftists in the United States:

...Hey, Sara... you're right.

As a matter of fact, the majority of political assassinations in America have come from the left or other variations of the mentally ill (as you will see below, many are both, liberalism and mental illness apparently run hand-in-hand), with the exception of RFK, who was killed by a long-standing lefty friend, the Jew-hating Muslim, in this instance Sirhan Sirhan.

The list goes on: John Wilkes Booth was a cross between Robert Byrd and Alec Baldwin, Charles J. Guiteau was a John Edwards-type lawyer who was told by the great beyond (perhaps channelling?) to murder President Garfield, Leon F. Czolgosz, who shot William McKinley was a lefty anarchist. Guiseppe Zangara who tried to kill FDR was a whacked-out anti-capitalist, and we all know Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist sympathizer.

Wannabe white Black Panther Sam Byck got himself killed trying to take out Nixon, and a year later, loonie lefty cultist Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to take out President Ford, who was the target of lefty counterculture loser Sarah Jane Moore just 17 days later.

The evidence is pretty convincing Sara, that if there is a political assassination attempt in America, that either the left or the mentally ill are behind it (I'm not sure I see the distinction between the two, but some do).

Back to Andrew Mickel, the latest lefty political assassin in the link above. Not surprisingly, this guy was a graduate of Evergreen State College, home to bomb-tunnel speedbump Rachel "St. Pancake" Corrie. He has been convicted of murder, has been recommended for the death penalty, and will be formally sentenced two weeks from now.

Yeah, you guys love peace...

That was followed up by RTG poster "tex" reminding us to:

toss in stalin, lenin, pol pot, castro (including che)...they killed non-politicians until the cows came home, and not just at clinics...
(next post)
kim jong il...whoever the fuck is running china today...and venezuela...

But to be fair, the lefty visitors on RTG did come up with a list of right wingers that are guilty of political assassinations. I'll present it in its entirity (as of the most recent posting at RTG) here:

1. Eric Rudolph*
2. Hitler

They forgot Tim McVeigh, but you get the point.

* Rudolph's abortion clinic bombings were based on (bad) religious beliefs, not politics, so I'm not 100% certain he should even be included.

AFLAC Duck on SE Asian Sex Tour?

And you thought you were having a bad day. (h/t: Drudge)

Stupid Media Comment of the Day

From a CNN television segment about a small plane that crashed during an emergency landing on a higway today:

The plane "...might have clipped an 18-wheeler while flying lower than usual." (emphasis added)

Gee, you think?

Shiavo and Pope are Not Real News for the American Left

You can always count on the Democratic Underground to be consistently out standing in a field, especially if a caretaker isn't there to usher them back inside the home. Mary Shaw's April 12 op-ed "Mind Control and the American Media" is a wonderful case in point.

Shaw wants us to consider the fact that the Terri Shiavo case occupied the media for a significant segment in March, and then the media transitioned rapidly into near 24-hour coverage of the last days, death, and burial of Pope John Paul II. This was apparently an unacceptable use of media time for Shaw:

"...the media has had very little to say about Iraq, where several more U.S. soldiers have been killed, the Abu Ghraib prison was attacked by insurgents, and a Belgian soldier died from "friendly fire" by U.S. troops.

"While the Schiavo case and the papal passing were certainly interesting and poignant stories, did they really merit 23 hours of coverage per day on the cable news channels, while other events that more closely impact the lives of the average American citizen went unreported?"

Cleary, Shaw's opinion of what constitutes "events that more closely impact the lives of the average American citizen" is the real topic of this article.

Shaw would apparently like to have more focus on events in Iraq. She calls for more media coverage of solider deaths, the Abu Ghraib prison attack, and a friendly fire event that killed a Belgian soldier. Do you notice a theme?

Shaw seems focused only on the negative events in Iraq, and apparently would waste no words on the successful capture of high-ranking Baathists and terrorist leaders, the increasingly rapid pace, scale, and success of raids by Iraqi forces against criminals and terrorists, nor would she mention the truly historic appointment of a former dissident Kurd to the Iraqi Presidency. No, Shaw is focused on dead soldiers, terrorist attacks, and U.S. troops killing a Belgian soldier.

There are a few problems with her proposition, starting with the simple fact that there are no Belgian troops stationed in Iraq.

One can only assume that she must have been speaking about the March 7 death of a Jr. Sgt. Gardev, a Bulgarian soldier tragically shot by U.S. forces in a friendly-fire incident while on patrol southeast of Diwaniya, Iraq.

Shaw fails to mention that just an hour after Gardev's death, a communist journalist by the name of Guiliana Sgrena was wounded, and a Italian security officer killed, when their driver ran an American checkpoint in Baghdad. That incident dominated the media for days, until physical evidence started contradicting Sgrena's hysterical claims, at which point the story quickly fizzled out in the liberal media.

The other two incidents, while tragic, don't measure up to the immediacy standard that Shaw herself wants to impose with her "events that more closely impact the lives of the average American citizen" criteria.

Sadly, over 1,500 brave men and women have died in combat in Iraq, but after two full years of combat, these loses are viewed by the media and American public as a routine, if tragic, fact of war. There are only so many ways to say that an American soldier was killed in combat, and these deaths are mentioned consistently and dutifully across all media, even if the MSM doesn't linger on these deaths as long as Shaw would apparently like. The Shiavo case, half a world closer than Iraq, was also much more immediate; as any American may one day be forced to rely on another to determine whether they should live or die. It does not get any more immediate or personal that contemplating your own demise, so by Shaw's own standards, the Schiavo case was more newsworthy for most Americans than any event in Iraq over the past month.

Which brings us to the final event Shaw would drum up airplay for, the Abu Ghraib prison attack. This was a complete tactical defeat for the terrorists, freeing not one prisoner, nor killing a single Coalition or Iraqi soldier, while heavy casualties were inflicted upon the attacking terrorist forces. This was not overlooked in the media, but with no American losses, the liberal MSM was more than willing to allow this story to become a footnote instead of a defining event. The death of the nearly three-decade leader of a religious group that has a billion followers worldwide and millions of followers in the U.S. is far more immediate and newsworthy than any event in Iraq of the past year. Once again, Shaw fails her own test.

These events are also have more immediacy than the other events Shaw would have the media focus more time on, specifically inquiries into Tom Delay's ethics, and lawsuits against Donald Rumsfeld. Both of these events are long-horizon, which could drag on far into the foreseeable future (or as long as they have merit).

Shaw says further:

"The media are in business to make money. Sensational stories like the Schiavo case and the death of the pope can easily be spun into headlines that sell papers. But the media have a moral responsibility to give us all the news of the day, even if the truth hurts."

Did Mary Shaw find out about military deaths in Iraq, the Abu Ghraib attack, and the friendly-fire death of a Bulgarian (not Belgian) soldier thorough her own private news sources? I suspect not. She obtained this information from news media, or from sources who interact with the news media. Obviously, Mary Shaw is getting the news she seeks, just not with the spin or in the amount she desires.

Perhaps she should be more straightforward and admit that what disturbs her is insufficient amounts of negative news about the Iraqi War, though I can think of better uses of Mary Shaw's time.

I'd suggest she start by learning the subtle differences between Bulgaria and Belgium.

Tweety's Revenge

More than one blogger got a wicked glint in his eye when he first heard reports of plans to legalize the hunting of feral cats in Wisconsin, and as can be expected, many cat lovers are in an uproar over the proposal. Despite the outrage, the proposal making cats an unprotected species does not come without scientific merit, nor is it an unknown practice; the hunting of cats is legal in at least two other states, and is quietly practiced by hunters in other states worried about the depredation of game species.

In Wisconsin alone, feral cats kill an estimated minimum of 47 million songbirds; estimates run as high as 139 million dead songbirds each year in the state, and the carnage doesn't stop there. They also kill millions of other small animals like rodents, amphibians and reptiles that are prey species for other creatures, such as owls and hawks, martens, weasels, and other small native predatory species.

The simple fact of the matter is that Fluffy is wired to be a hunter, and when you put her out at night she is looking to kill, no matter how well fed she is. They do not kill for food, they kill becuase that is what they are designed to do. The broken necks of baby ducks and punctured skulls of baby bunnies tend to show a darker side of domesticated cats that cat owners are determined not to see.

Personally, I'm not morally opposed to the proposed law, but would hope it goes hand-in-hand with feline leash laws. The millions of truly feral cats may only be practically controlled via hunting, but enforced leash laws would significantly cut down on feral birth rates and bring the population down to a point where cats aren't a threat to native species.

As a matter of pure ballistic interest to the gun geek in me, what would be the best cartridge for cats? I'm thinking the new .19 Calhoon would be almost perfect... hypothetically, of course.

Now, should I submit this post to the Carnival of Cordite, or the Carnival of the Cats?

Update: Simon Bond must be loving this...

Update 2: Wisconsin citizens have voted 6,830-5,201 in favor of allowing the hunting of feral and untagged free-running domestic cats. The Dept. of Natural Resources now must gather support in the Wisconsin Legislature, which would then need to pass a bill and have Gov. Jim Doyle sign it.I give this proposal a very slight chance of becoming law anytime soon.

Animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States are sure to oppose this legislation, and cat people will almost certainly seek to drown out biologists, environmentalists and others who support this reasonable legislation, which is the most economical, practical and effective way of controlling feral cat populations.

I am all for people having domestic cats as pets, but not at the expense of native and endangered species.

Sorry, Sylvester.

Freedom of (Some) Speech

It was recently announced that Kevin Sites, freelance war videographer, will be awarded a Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism. Editor & Publisher covered the award announcement by saying:

Kevin Sites, a freelance photojournalist for NBC, will be awarded the 2005 Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism on May 12 for his decision-making process after he witnessed and taped a U.S. Marine killing an unarmed Iraqi man in a mosque.

Sites decided to share the tape with the military, then he worked with NBC to create a "well-nuanced story that aired 48 hours after the incident," according to the Payne announcement. Since he was working as a pool photojournalist at the time, Sites shared the tape with the other news organizations in the pool.

When Sites was criticized after other outlets used the footage, he answered the critics and explained his decisions in detail on his Weblog, www.kevinsites.net.

In response, one of my favorite blogs weighed in by calling Sites a traitor, while another was surprisingly reserved, though his comments section made up for it. These blogs, of course, were hardly the only ones with this general viewpoint.

From both legal and ethical standpoints, calling Kevin Sites a traitor is ignorant. Not stupid, mind you, but ignorant of the law. It isn't a matter of "I think" or "in my opinion," they are quite simply, technically, wrong in calling Kevin Sites a traitor.

One cites Article III, Sec. 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." (his bold. --C.Y)

Kevin Sites shot a video of real events, unedited, and undoctored, and even ran it by the U.S. military before release. That is not treason. Furthermore, the assinine "logic" of some people that "well, he knew if could be twisted against us, so he's guilty" would not only stifle the First Amendment, but completely eviscerate it to a totalitarian extent. These people don't support the freedom of speech, just the freedom of some speech, that of which they personally approve.

I'll tell you what, my friends: go ahead and start a movement to prosecute Sites for your understanding of treason. You will of course also charge the journalists and producers, writers and editors who furthered this travesty by mentioning it in network broadcasts, cable news shows, and in national, regional, and local newspapers. I won't personally miss Olbermann, Dowd, or Krugman much, but I will miss Hannity, Krauthammer, and Will.

While you are at it, of course, you'll also have to charge the career Marine officers who released the tape for publication. I think that is a pretty short chain of command, just a few PR officers and maybe a general or two. Probably only a dozen or so all told. As active duty military, they will of course face the possibility of execution for their treason. Do they still use firing squads at Leavenworth, or does the military now allow lethal injections for enemies of democracy?

Nothing like the idea of putting a Few Good Men to death to underscore your shaky understanding of the Constitution, right guys?

Guys?

There are higher allegiences more important than the United States, and that if you honor these higher ideals, the best interests of the country are served as a natural consequence.

I'm sorry, but we disagree on this one.

An Interesting Life

I happen to be in the middle of a fascinating book called Right Turns, an autobiography by former 60s student leftist Michael Medved and his eventual transition to becoming a conservative cultural critic. So far I've read from his childhood up to his marriage at 23, and it is amazing not only what he had done by that age, but who he met along the way. He's quite an interesting character, and I'm not quite halfway through.

This book is worth a look if you get a chance.

The Law is not the People's Choice Awards

Mark R. Kleiman wants to know what conservatives think about Mexico City's mayor facing minor criminal charges that may keep him from running for the presidency. Klieman is hardly alone in feeling that the current Mexican government may be trying to pull a fast one here, but I think he and several other bloggers right, left, and center are hitching their cart to the wrong proverbial horse.

Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is subject to the same constitution as all Mexican nationals, and therefore he must play by those same rules. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," I have always heard. Lopez may be being legally railroaded, but he is being treated in accordance with Mexican law. If the law is broken, then the people should push their elected officials to try to change it, but advocating a separate and more equal application of the law becuase of his popularity seems as least as much of a threat to Mexican democracy as is this selective application of charges, if not more so.

How does this conservative feel about this situation, Mr. Kleiman? I feel that the same people who didn't want the American government to intervene on behalf of one citizen in Florida, shouldn't suddenly want us to to reverse course and intervene on behalf of another single citizen in another land where our meddling is even less wanted.

Another Sign of Success?

The NY Times reports today that senior U.S. commanders are ready to begin thinking seriously about drawing down troop levels in Iraq, yet another subtle suggestion of progress in stabilizing a post-Saddam Iraq. The Times reports that U.S. commanders almost universally see signs of improvement, but perhaps an even more telling factor is that the Times is willing to give credence to the viewpoints of actual military commanders on the ground instead of the opinions of anti-war politicians and protestors.

One would almost be tempted to think that coalition forces and the new Iraqi government forces are not only slowing ending the Iraqi insurgency, but the American media insurgency as well.

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Insurgent Capture Photo

Confederate Yankee was able to scoop the MSM/DNC today, obtaining this exclusive photograph of the capture of a CBS video cameraman arrested as a suspected insurgent in northeastern Mosul, Iraq.

I'm all news, all the time. Full power, tall tower. I want to break in when news breaks out. That's my agenda. Now, respectfully, when you start talking about a liberal agenda and all the, quote, 'liberal bias' in the media, I quite frankly, and I say this respectfully but candidly to you, I don't know what you're talking about." -- Dan Rather

Sneak Attack on the Border?

I almost couldn't believe this when I read it on Blue State Conservatives.

While Minutemen Project volunteers are busy doing the work in Arizona that President Bush refuses to allow the Border Control to do, Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Ted Kennedy (D-Tox) may cravenly try to sneak in backdoor de facto illegal alien amnesty language (S.359, the Craig-Kennedy Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2005) into an emergency spending bill to supply our troops.

The Craig-Kennedy bill would not only allow amnesty to any invading illegal who can prove he worked on a farm for three months, it would also grant amnesty to their families, even if they have never been to the United States.

Need I say more?

A Few More Good Men

At a time when enlistment is low and the military has been forced to open up age restrictions, Army Sgt. Robert Stout, a Purple Heart recipient and veteran of the Iraq war wants to continue to serve his country, but a Pentagon trapped in the past may not let him. Why?

Stout is openly gay.

This brings him into direct conflict with the antiquated "don't ask, don't tell" policy still in use by the Pentagon, even though the bulk of our allies--Great Britain, Australia, Israel, etc--have had openly gay soldiers in their ranks for years. There are an estimated 65,000 gays currently serving in the U.S. military.

I'm rather disappointed in our Petagon leadership both for the obvious discrimination against a minority group willing to serve this country, and in their underlying belief that our soliders are so immature and homophobic that they cannot function with openly gay soldiers in their units. American soldiers are among the best trained, most disciplined, and professional military forces in the world. To think that they cannot cope with homosexuality when they can cope with the vastly more intense emotions of combat is assinine, and selling our soldiers short.

We've seen this kind of discrimination before from our military, but it is past time for it to stop. Our soldiers are better than that. It is time for their leadership to catch up.

Chickenhawks and Vultures

Thanks to Charles, we know that Pittsburgh IndyMedia will be meeting this weekend in Pittsburgh. Their topic is:

How can the U.S. be stopped? Lessons from the Vietnam war

Mass protests, GI refusals and a powerful "insurgent" movement - the same things that led to the end of the war in Vietnam are what can stop the U.S. slaughter in Iraq today...

I found the concept of "stopping the U.S. slaughter" very interesting, as even if you agreed with the idea in theory at one time, the facts show that the supermajority of offensive actions killing civilians are being conducted by the insurgency, not by coalition forces.

Saddam's conventional military forces have long since been defeated, and Saddam himself just watched a Kurd elected to his former position from his prison cell. The insurgency itself has failed prevent free elections, and it's recent behavior is far more criminal than revolutionary. By trying to "stop the U.S." by supporting a powerful insurgency, these "peace activists" actually advocate extending an insurgency that only currently exists as a terrorist and criminal force.

In other words, these "peace activists" are actually encouraging far more continued slaughter by supporting the insurgency.

I've accused liberals in the past of so blindly hating President Bush that they don't seem to care who gets hurt; these people hate our president, one man, so much that they would sell tens of millions down the river hoping to cause him to fail.

When you combine this blind hatred of Bush with the complete lack of any sort of changeover plan by the left, or even an acknowledgement of the fact that the immediate withdrawal they favor would plunge an fledgling democracy into chaos and potential civil war, then you see that IndyMedia and their far left supporters are long on rhetoric and hatred, and short on well-reasoned or even remotely strategic long term planning.

IndyMedia and other liberals are against George Bush beyond logical constraints. Their heated rhetoric and short-sighted ideologies shows that they don't care who dies, American soldier or Iraqi civilian, as long as they get their desired result of an diminished George W. Bush.

Liberals have taken to calling conservatives "chickenhawks."

In return, liberals have given us vultures.

Update: Donald Sensing happens to have a post up this morning about how the liberal's hoped for powerful insurgency is giving us lessons on how not to conduct guerrilla warfare (via Instapundit). Sensing in turn, points to must-read articles by Austin Bay, Bill Roggio and Wretchard.

On a separate but related note, "Hanoi Jane" Fonda is still widely viewed as a traitor by many Americans for supporting the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. It will be very interesting to looks back to the present from 5, 10, or 20 years in the future at today's crop of pro-insurgency leftists and see if they earn an even more tainted legacy than Fonda for supporting an enemy who are fighting against the common dream of the Iraqi people.

Update 2: Allen at Cox & Forkum reminds me that they've covered this ground before.

Martinez-Shiavo Memo

I'm really glad I decided not to post on the so-called Shiavo memo. It was just gut instinct not to blog it, but it just didn't feel right. Michelle Malkin made a similar choice as well, not that it kept stupid liberals from sending her e-mail saying she was wrong for something she never wrote.

But the real blame goes to the MSM/DNC for blowing the reporting of this story in the first place (which they have yet to account for to the best of my knowledge), and to bloggers too willing to consider this on par with the forged TANG documents far too early without sufficient evidence.

Liberalism Kills

The left keeps ramping up their paranoid delusions and their rhetoric and actions get more and more violent. It was only a matter of time before they started murdering people "for the cause."

In this instance, frequent Indymedia poster and Evergreen State College graduate (yes, that Evergreen) Andrew Mickel murdered a 31-year-old policeman, shooting the new father in the back and then bragged about it on more than a dozen Indymedia web sites in a ranting manifesto.

Read the whole sickening thing. Mickel is hardly the first leftist assassin in American history.

(hat tip and comments: LGF)

Note: This murder was in 2002. Mickel was convicted and is now in the sentencing phase of is trial, and stands to face the death penalty. At least he has a chance. It is more than he gave Officer Mobilio.

Delusions of Supremacy

Tom Elia at the New Editor dug up this self-parodying gem in response to Paul Krugman's smug post "An Academic Question" in the NY Times:

To the Editor:

Paul Krugman ("An Academic Question," column, April 5) is correct that the lack of conservative faculty members in college is caused not through bias but by deficiencies in conservative ideology.

From the laissez-faire, anti-unionism of late-19th-century Republicans to the melding of those trends in today's neoconservative movement, the result of conservative ideology has almost always been deleterious for the majority of Americans.

Academics look at evidence and come to conclusions. Today's conservatives start with a conclusion and then try to find anything to support that conclusion to the exclusion of all contrary evidence. Their arguments tend to fall apart under the lightest scrutiny.

It is no wonder that the vast majority of well-educated academics are "liberal."

Brandon Bittner

Royersford, Pa., April 6, 2005

I have another explanation, Mr. Bittner: If you can't do, teach. Academia may not only attract liberals, but it is the only practical area in which it can exist.

Mr. Bittner may assume liberal superiority all he wants, the fact remains that though liberals dominant the university, this ideological domination is quickly destroyed by real world market forces once students leave the academy. If liberal ideology were as superior as both Mr. Krugman and Mr. Bittner haughtily opine, then college graduates would not only emerge from universities with a liberal ideology, they would retain that ideology far after graduation and would be quite successful in the professional world.

But that supremacy doesn't exist, does it? The vast majority of industry leaders are capitalists, not marxists. In fact, the vast majority of most businesses, from industry leaders down through the "tail" are capitalists, rejecting liberal egalitarian theology out of hand.

In addition to not surviving contact with the business world, liberalism doesn't well tolerate contact with the ballot box. Liberals holding a supermajority in academia, and therefore, this "superior" ideology should then dominate American life and politics across the board. Yet, conservatives and moderates dominate every level of government as voters consistently reject liberalism across the vast majority of the country.

Mr. Krugman and Mr. Bittner are welcome to fondle their delusions of liberal supremacy in the academy. It is the final place it exists.

Reasons for Fear

I've been mentioning the "high end" problems with illegal immigration, mostly in the terms of economic impact and national security. Thousands of miles from the border, I can't feel what the illegal invasion feels like, nor can I imagine feeling the need to arm my spouse when I leave home.

Unfortunately, this feeling is a fact of life for some Americans who live the Mexican border. Country Store finds this odd and unsettling example in this Christian Science Monitor coverage of border life for a Naco, Arizona family:

The Garner family on Purdy Lane doesn't know exactly how many chickens, roosters, Guinea hens, or geese they own on their 5-acre farm in this dusty town on the US-Mexico border. But they know the number is smaller than the number of illegal immigrants who can be seen daily in groups of three, 10, 40, 60, and more on their property. They are often huddled in centipede form (hands on the hips of the person in front), kneeling under windows, crouched behind trees, and sleeping in their egg house.

Mr. Garner, a carpenter, his wife, and three daughters (age 10, 12, and 15) tell countless stories that are as alarming to outsiders as they are matter-of-fact to them. Theirs is a life dominated by self-defense lessons, family practice drills to huddle in the master bedroom, obligatory two-way radios for kids who walk to school, and a handgun on the hip for mom.
Although violent encounters are relatively rare, their stories tell a narrative of how surreal - and spooky - life can be for families that straddle the 1,400-mile Maginot Line known as the US-Mexican border. "You'll be weeding in your garden and turn around to see 20 of them standing in front of you, demanding water and food," says Dawn Garner, the mother.
"I come out to go to school, and they are changing their clothes under my bedroom window," says daughter Shayne.
"They leave backpacks filled with drugs on the lawn," says sister Ciara. "It's scary and creepy."

This is their daily existence, thanks to a federal government that doesn't feel that our border, or this family's lives, is worth their effort or resolve.

Update: A Mexican radio reporter was shot nine times in front of her radio station in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas/Mexico border known for drug smuggling related violence. Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla was the fourth journalist shot by Mexican drug gangs in the past year; more than 30 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Nuevo Laredo so far this year.

Update 2: Two illegal aliens in New York City were just arrested for plotting to turn themselves into suicide bombers. Is the threat illegal aliens pose starting to sink in yet?

Observations on Micheal Shiavo

I've been getting a large and consistent amount of traffic from search engines looking for information on "shiavo" or "michael shiavo." Obviously, even though Terri Shiavo is dead and cremated and soon to undergo burial, people still want to know about her life and her death, and the former husband entangled in both.

Michael Shiavo claims that his wife had a heart attack as the result of an eating disorder. Her body chemistry, enzyme levels and EKGs in the hospital emergency room never supported this claim. If experts are correct, Terri Shiavo's recently completed but as yet unreleased autopsy should be able to explain whether Terri Shiavo's brain damage was the result of a heart attack or some other means.

Michael Shiavo then sued in 1992, and won a court judgment for $300,000 for himself and $700,000 for Terri's rehabilitation. Instead of getting Terri Shiavo rehabilitation, however, he stuck her in a nursing home and denied her treatment. It was at this point, only after winning a million-dollar settlement and putting Terri into a nursing home instead of a rehabilitation facility that Michael Shiavo suddenly "remembered" Terri wanted to die.

For seven years Michael Shiavo spent Terri's rehabilitation funds trying to have her taken off her feeding tube instead of trying to get her therapy. Once successful in getting legal permission to commit the homicide of his wife, he made no known efforts to find a shorter, more humane ways to end Terri Shiavo's life than letting her starve to death.

Once Terri Shiavo was dead, Michael Shiavo would not let her parents bury her body nearby in Florida where both the Shiavo and Shindler families live. Instead, he had Terri Shiavo cremated instead of buried as her family desired, would not let the Shindler family have access to Terri's body or ashes for their daughter's memorial service.

In addition, if widely available accounts can be believed, Michael Shiavo did not want to even let the Shindler family know where or when their daughter's ashes would be buried, only providing that information under court order.

That is what we know of Michael Shiavo. Make of it what you will.

Rational Ways

"I am against vigilantes in the United States of America; I am for enforcing law in rational ways." --George W. Bush

I am against vigilantism, as are most Americans. I am also for a government that protects its people, and this government is failing. As I mentioned yesterday (and previously here, and here, and less seriously here), we have a major security risk in this country which defies explanation.

We've spent billions destroying the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring al Qaeda, and to attempt to establish a democracy there for the first time. We've spent billions more in Iraq removing a dictator that sponsored four terrorist groups (ANO or Fatah, al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, and the Palestine Liberation Front, or PLF ), invaded two neighboring countries, paid bounties to the families of suicide bombers to murder women and children. Saddam also gave sanctuary to the 1993 World Trade Center bomb-builder, used massed chemical weapon assaults not seen on a scale since World War I, and broke the terms of the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire literally thousands of times.

We're spending billions more to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure to a level better than what it was before the war, while simultaneously (and as time goes on, apparently more successfully) building a fledgling democracy that held free elections in less than half the time it took us in Japan and Germany after World War II. I support both of these invasions and nation-building projects, which give 50 million people a chance to decide their own destinies for the very first time.

Further, I support and understand the need to spend millions if not billions more to overtly and covertly destabilize dictatorships in Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Asian countries that support or allow terrorism. These expenditures are long term investments in global stability. They make sense.

What doesn't make sense is to spend lavishly on proactive measures overseas without supporting even minimally reactive defensive measures for our country here at home. I am, of course, talking about our anemic border security efforts, one area so far in two terms where George Bush's presidency has abjectly failed by any rational standard.

A group of concerned citizens calling themselves the Minutemen Project, frustrated by the failure of our government to address border security issues, is now stationed along 23 miles of the most porous section of our border with Mexico, a stretch of arid Arizona desert so poorly defended that somewhere in excess of 2/3 of those who criminally intend to enter our country succeed in their criminal effort. In real numbers, this translates to two million illegal aliens flowing over the border northward each year unchecked, with un-inspected cargo (certainly drugs, possibly weapons conventional or otherwise), unknown criminal background (a favorite ingress of violent central American gangs), and unknown intent.

The Department of Agriculture is more responsive and better equipped for their duties than is the Border Patrol. It is harder to get a guava into this country than a Guatemalan. That should tell you something, and that "something" isn't good. In fact, it's downright frightening.

So frightening, in fact, that American citizens, feeling abandoned (and rightly so) by their government, are staging an intervention. Hundreds of volunteers set up lawn chairs every few hundred yards, armed with binoculars, night vision scopes and occasional small arms for protection from violent border smugglers known as coyotes that traffic in people and drugs. These volunteers, in what was widely seen as a bit of political theater, are accomplishing something George W. Bush has not done (nor apparently tried to do) since 9/11: they are stopping or at least hampering illegal border crossings along the 23-mile stretch they are patrolling. So far, they've detected and lead authorities to a minimum of 118 illegals.

In addition, they've forced patrolling actions on the other side of the border by a Mexican government seeking to avoid confrontations (and no doubt, bad P.R.) between its illegally-acting citizens and the U.S. volunteers. This patrolling action, may I add, would almost certainly not occur otherwise.

The MSM/DNC reaction largely echoes Bush's irrational cry of vigilantism, though that reaction is hardly uniform among regional and local media who actually deal with these issues on the community level. A growing amount of media coverage is actually positive.

No, the peaceful, rational and practical action of the Minutemen Project is exactly the kind of intelligent (and surprisingly effective) protest needed to force our government to live up to its responsibilities.

Better Late than Never...

I know that I've established a tradition here at Confederate Yankee of posting at least once during the morning and then often making at least one more comment during the day. Well, since my employment status changed (I now have no employment, which is disconcerting to say the least), I've been busy looking for technical writing or web-related employment either in the New York metro area or in my home state of North Carolina, as well as trying to catch up on an ever-expanding "Honey do" list.

This has forced most of my blogging to afternoon hours, but I just wanted to let my readership know (especially as it is expanding) that I am far from backing down in my blogging, I'm just "differently focused" at the moment. I'll still be posting frequently, just later in the day.

More coverage of the Minutemen Project to come later in the day...

Border War

Yesterday, The Minuteman Project began in ernest, with hundreds of volunteers spreading out at quarter-mile intervals in the Arizona desert along the U.S.-Mexican border. Their stated goal is to function as a neighborhood watch along the most-vulnerable part of the U.S. border. Arizona Monthly said in November that "the most important nexus for international jihad outside of Pakistan and the Middle East has been Arizona," in their cover article "Al Qaeda Among Us."

1.1 million illegals were captured along the 2,000 mile southern border last year, with half of those captured coming through Arizona. Among the majority millions of illegals that crossed successfully last year were violent Central American gang members and 25 suspected Chechen terrorists in July that to this day have not been captured.

The national MSM/DNC has predictably taken the side of the illegal aliens. The NY Times is running an article this morning by Eduardo Porter claiming (with no supporting hard facts and evidence that can be described as circumstantial at best) that illegals pump "as much as" $7 billion into Social Security each year. Porter completely, and in my opinion dishonestly, avoids mentioning the tremendous burden illegals place upon social services programs, such as the $200 million each year illegals cost hospitals in New Jersey alone.

Interestingly enough, local media is hardly as monolithic as their national counterparts, with some news organizations already claiming some success, and another claiming that the Minutemen are exactly that; a militia doing exactly what Article 1 of the Constitution requires, "suppressing insurrections and repelling invasions."

In 2004, the equivilent of 160 12,500 military divisions simply walked northward across the U.S.-Mexican border to disappear into our country's interior. Opposing them is an apathetic federal government, a complicit media, an overworked Border Patrol, and now, the militia
the Constitution intended.

The Minuteman Project is firing a very public media shot across the bow of an apathetic, perhaps complicit, White House and Congress. Hopefully this negative exposure will force the government to shore up our borders.

I'd hate to see another 9/11 take place because terrorists were able to walk unmolested across the border. I can only hope President Bush and Congressmen up for reelection in 2006 have that same concern.

Update: As mentioned above by the NY Times reporter Eduardo Porter, illegals put a maximum of $7 billion into Social Security. Riehl World View comes through with data to show that illegals create a net loss of $10 billion a year that the U.S. taxpayer has to make up for, putting $16 billion into the system in taxes, and taking out $26.3 billion. Read the whole thing. You won't find this in the Times.

And the Banned Played On

It is past the point where the ineffectual Gomery Commission publication ban into Adscam can be taken seriously as a deterrent. It now only exists as an apparent abuse of power by an already corrupt government.

In what could easily be called "Captain Ed vs. Canada," a lone American blogger, Ed Morrisey of Captain's Quarters blog (latest update here), has done something quite extraordinary; he's helped turn a little known (in the States) north-of-the-border corruption scandal into a major freedom of speech issue.

For those of you just catching up (and I readily admit to being one of those myself), a massive and apparently widespread kickback scheme may have been in effect at least since the 1990s, where tens of millions of dollars were funneled from members of the ruling Liberal government in Canada to advertising agencies for little or no actual work. At this point, some of the money may have been diverted back to the Liberal party in some form of kickbacks. A nice scam, to be sure.

This scandal has been ongoing for two years, but the defining moments seem to be breaking in the past week. The Gomery Commission was formed over a year ago to formally investigate the scandal, and most of the investigation has been open to the public, but Judge Gomery decided there would be a publication ban on the testimony of three key witnesses.

This was done under the auspices of protecting the rights of the three witnesses, but the Liberal Party, perhaps fearing what the results of the investigation may show, seem to be trying to force a snap election so they will not have to answer for their actions to the voters.

It was in this environment that Captain's Quarters brought to light the apparent testimony of Jean Brault, president of the ad agency Groupaction, one of the three witnesses that had their testimony covered by the publication ban.

The Liberal Party and the Canadian government, of course, cannot touch an American citizen, but ridiculously still seems to think that they have some control over the information. Gomery is apparently still threatening Canadians who not only publish the banned material, but those who simply utter which American blog (now blogs) are discussing the banned material.

The Gomery assault on Canadian free speech has the potential of becoming every bit as big a story as Adscam.

I just hope the Canadians realize how fruitless this ban is, and what a threat is poses to their freedoms. The Internet was designed to withstand nuclear war. Somehow, I don't think Gomery is much of a threat to it.

He is far more a threat to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To Hell and Back... Again

Perhaps the most memorable scene in Audie Murphy's autobiographical To Hell and Back was when Murphy jumped up onto the back of a burning tank destroyer to single-handedly beat back a German assault using the .50-caliber M-2 machine gun mounted on top, earning the Congressional Medal of Honor, this nation's highest military award for valor.

Two years ago today, in Baghdad, Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, would almost exactly mirror Murphy's achievement. The parallels are staggering, the heroism and love of their fellow soldiers unquestioned.

Sgt. Smith was leading three dozen soldiers when they came under attack by an estimated 100 of the elite Iraqi Republican Guard armed with RPGs, machine guns, and mortars.

From Sgt. Smith's official Medal of Honor citation:

While an engineer squad began to clear debris in the courtyard, one of the guards saw 10-15 enemy soldiers with small arms, 60mm mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG). These were the lead elements of an organized company-sized force making a deliberate attack on the flank of Task Force 2-7. Sgt. 1st Class Smith came to the position and identified 25-50 more soldiers moving into prepared fighting positions. Sgt. 1st Class Smith instructed a squad leader to get a nearby Bradley Fighting Vehicle for support. While waiting for the Bradley, Sgt. 1st Class Smith had members of 2nd platoon retrieve AT-4 weapons and form a skirmish line outside the gate. By this time, the number of enemy identified rose to 100 soldiers, now a confirmed company-sized attack. Three of B Company's M113A3 armored personnel carriers (APC) oriented .50-cal. machineguns toward the opening in the wall and the surrounding guard towers, now occupied by enemy soldiers.

Sgt. 1st Class Smith's actions to organize a defense against the deliberate attack were not only effective, but inspired the B Company, 11th Engineer Battalion Soldiers. He then began to lead by example. As the Bradley arrived on site and moved through the hole in the wall toward the gate, Sgt. 1st Class Smith ran to the gate wall and threw a fragmentation grenade at the enemy. He then took two Soldiers forward to join the guards and directed their engagement of the enemy with small arms. The enemy continued to fire rifles, RPGs, and 60mm mortars at the Soldiers on the street and within the courtyard. Enemy soldiers began moving along the buildings on the north side of the clearing to get into position to climb into the towers. Sgt. 1st Class Smith called for an APC to move forward to provide additional fire support. Sgt. 1st Class Smith then fired an AT-4 at the enemy while directing his fire team assembled near the front line of the engagement area.

Running low on ammunition and having taken RPG hits, the Bradley withdrew to reload. The lead APC in the area received a direct hit from a mortar, wounding the three occupants. The enemy attack was at its strongest point and every action counted. Not only were the wounded Soldiers threatened but also more than 100 Soldiers from B Company, the Task Force Aid Station, and the Mortar Platoon were at risk.

Sgt. 1st Class Smith ordered one of his Soldiers to back the damaged APC back into the courtyard after the wounded men had been evacuated. Knowing the APC 's .50-Cal. machinegun was the largest weapon between the enemy and the friendly position, Sgt. 1st Class Smith immediately assumed the track commander's position behind the weapon, and told a soldier who accompanied him to "feed me ammunition whenever you hear the gun get quiet." Sgt. 1st Class Smith fired on the advancing enemy from the unprotected position atop the APC and expended at least three boxes of ammunition before being mortally wounded by enemy fire. The enemy attack was defeated. Sgt. 1st Class Smith's actions saved the lives of at least 100 Soldiers, caused the failure of a deliberate enemy attack hours after 1st Brigade seized the Baghdad Airport, and resulted in an estimated 20-50 enemy soldiers killed. His actions inspired his platoon, his Company, the 11th Engineer Battalion and Task Force 2-7 Infantry.

Sgt. Smith and Second Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy both mounted heavily-damaged, lightly armored vehicles to man exposed .50-caliber machine guns. They did so to repel enemy assaults that threatened to overrun their positions at great personal risk and with tremendous valor to save the lives of their soldiers.

Sgt. Smith's Congressional Medal of Honor was just the third Medal of Honor awarded since the Vietnam war, and the first of the Iraqi War.

Not just American Heros
In Al Amarah, Iraq on May 1, and June 11 , 2004, Private Johnson Beharry, driver of a Warrior IFV ( infantry fighting vehicle similar to the U.S. Bradley) in the British Army, won Great Britain's highest award for valor, the Victoria Cross. It was the first Victoria Cross awarded since the Falklands conflict, and the first awarded to a living recipient since 1965.

Note: Unfortunately, not everyone respects Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.

Not Banned In Canada

So click here already for Canada's Adscam updates.

Lame Canada

I hear such wonderful things about our northern neighbor, Canada, and what it has to offer the world: free government-sponsored healthcare (if you survive the wait), hockey (well, most years), and uh...

Anyway, freedom of speech is not apparently one of the wonderful things Canada has to offer. If you are Canadian and dare link to American blog Captain's Quarters, you could face legal action from your government. Shockingly enough, liberal message board Democratic Underground failed to mention freedom of speech issues in Demotopia when they advocated fleeing northward after November 2.

Who the hell does Canada think they are restricting free speech, San Francisco?

If you've missed the backstory, tens of millions of dollars of government contracts were funneled into advertising firms connected to the Liberal government for little or no work, and the money apparently went right back into the pockets of Liberal politicians. There is a corruption investigation, but there has been a publication ban in Canada on the testimony of three witnesses whose testimony maybe damning enough to threaten the entire Liberal government.

Being American, Captain's Quarter's is not subject to the publication ban, and so ran an expose on some of the testimony that the Liberal Canadian government doesn't want the world to see, testimony saying that the corruption ran to the highest levels of the government.

Now Canadian bloggers who merely link to Captain's Quarters are being threatened with legal action for simply linking to those trying to expose the truth.

Massive amounts of web traffic are now flowing southward to Captain's Quarters as Canadians trying to find out what their government is trying to hide.

I'd expect this kind of behavior from China or Cuba, but to have such a restriction on free speech in a theoretically free Canada is unsettling, to say the least.

MSM/DNC Bias

Cassandra has an awesome article up on MSM/DNC bias (Hat Tip: Instapundit) that anyone interested in the media or politics should read.

I've always thought about Democrats and the media being two separate entities, but in another post, Cassandra provides a definition of the MSM/DNC as "two arms of the same beast" that makes near-perfect sense to anyone who followed the apparent lockstep coordination between the media and the DNC in the 2004 election cycle.

I think you'll be seeing that new acronym (MSM/DNC) a lot from now on, and MSM/DNC is going to hate every mention for it's accuracy.

That's one buzzword that isn't going down the memory hole.

A Well-Deserved Promotion

Karol J. Wojtyla, a field representative extraordinaire for the Almighty, took a well-deserved promotion to the head office at 9:37 PM (2:37 PM EST). His presence will be greatly missed by the millions he touched around the world.

More:
Pope John Paul II: Biography (Vatican, Short Version)
Pope John Paul II: Early Year Biography (CNN)
Pope John Paul II: The Priesthood Years (CNN)
Pope John Paul II: The Papacy (CNN)

Pope's choose their names, and this one choose to be called John Paul II.

So who was Pope John Paul ?

Choosing the Next Pope (From Riehl World View)

Update:
A list of possible candidates to be the next Pope.

I Knew Nominating Hillary Was A Bad Idea...

From the Jerusalem Post:

A thorough analysis of the Koran reveals that the US will cease to exist in the year 2007, according to research published by Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi.

The study, which has caught the attention of millions of Muslims worldwide, is based on in-depth interpretations of various verses in the Koran. It predicts that the US will be hit by a tsunami larger than that which recently struck southeast Asia.

"The tsunami waves are a minor rehearsal in comparison with what awaits the US in 2007," the researcher concluded in his study. "The Holy Koran warns against the Omnipotent Allah's force. A great sin will cause a huge flood in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."

If they would only nominate Joe Lieberman instead in 2007, this wouldn't happen.

A World Turned Upside Down

After reading this, I knew it must be April Fool's.

This just confirmed it.