LimitsToGrowth Archive

 

January 2006
 

Ohio sheriff bills U.S. government for jailed illegals   [1/31/06]
Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones has sent Washington a tab of $125,000 for the cost of jailing illegal aliens arrested on criminal charges. He says said 900 foreign-born inmates have been housed in the crowded county jail in the past year. (Remember, this is a rather out-of-the-way location far from the border.)

    "We're not a border state, we're in the middle of the country, but I can tell you the people here are fed up with this stuff," he said. "As the local sheriff, I keep my ear to the ground, and I hear what the people are saying. I have the bully pulpit and my constituents don't, so I am determined to speak for them.
        "This is not rocket science," he said. "I intend to continue to bring this problem to the attention of anyone who will listen. There is little else I can do unless and until the system is changed."
        The Hispanic population in Hamilton, the Butler County seat, has grown by 500 percent since 1990. Overall, the county -- in southwestern Ohio, 25 miles north of Cincinnati -- has one of the region's fastest-growing Hispanic populations.
        The sheriff's three bills represent $70-a-day in housing costs for the illegal aliens. The county forwarded bills to ICE, the Homeland Security agency in charge of detention, in the amounts of $71,610 for October, $30,030 for November and $23,380 for December.

•   •   •  

Pakistani women defy threats, run mixed marathon   [1/30/06]
Congratulations to the brave Pakistani female athletes who ignored the threats and participated in the footrace.

    For weeks, Islamist groups had tried to ban women from the race. On Friday police arrested more than 400 people when a protest against the marathon turned violent. The controversy shook this city of 8 million, raising concerns that violence would disrupt the race, which was designed as a fundraiser for quake victims.
        The threat only underscored for many the symbolic importance of the race.
        "Though we are afraid, we are running," says Ethiopian star runner Ashu Kasim, who is Muslim. "We can have our faith and we can run."
        The race went off without incident. The only challenge to some 6,000 police was controlling the exuberance of the crowds, who cheered more than 15,000 runners.
A Kenyan won the women's race for a second time.
    Defending champion Jane Nyambura of Kenya dented the Ethiopian stranglehold by winning the women's event with a timing of 2:24:57, touching the finish line three minutes ahead of the second placed Meseret Kotu of Ethiopia (2:37.31) whose other colleague Teringo Gelacjew (2:40:59) came third.

•   •   •  

So many stake early claim on America   [1/30/06]
Say you visited my house, even stayed over and helped yourself to the fridge — does that mean you now own the place? Of course not, yet low-rent opinion writers use the same sort of non-reasoning to spin nonsense about how American identity has nothing to do with the British background of the founders.

    Recently in Beijing, a prominent Chinese lawyer and art collector unveiled an 18th-century map that some say proves a Chinese explorer by the name of Zheng He discovered America more than 70 years before Christopher Columbus. That means that soon Chinese grandmothers all over the United States will begin telling their grandchildren of their ancestor's seminal role in American history.
        Don't laugh. Countless other ethnic groups have employed similar dubious facts -- and even downright fictions -- as a way of asserting their rightful place in America. Yes, the boundaries of inclusion in the United States are legally defined by citizenship. But because our national identity is based on shared abstract ideals rather than common ethnicity, many of us who are neither Native Americans nor descendants of the Mayflower can at times feel a tad bit insecure about our claims to this land. So to affirm our sense of belonging, we tie our ethnic heroes and myths into primordial moments and archetypal characters in American history.
    Please see Prof. Huntington for a more enlightening discussion about the basis of American identity.

•   •   •  

Helper at the gateway   [1/30/06]
This Hmong puff piece notes a couple eensy problems with the way the culture treats women, but no mention of the polygamy which thousands of immigrants still practice against American law.

    BROCKTON [MASS] -- When there is trouble in a Hmong marriage, it is Ter Yang's job to tell a husband that here in America, paying $10,000 for a wife does not mean he owns her, as he might a car.
        When a Hmong family arrives fresh from a refugee camp in Thailand, Yang will call on them bearing lemongrass, health insurance applications, and the news that they must send the girls to school along with the boys.
        Yang, 55, helps his community thread a way between Hmong tradition and American culture -- deciphering doctors' orders, calming skittish job applicants, smoothing conflicts. He is the unofficial mayor of the Hmong community in Massachusetts, leading the Hmong here just as his father led the ethnic minority in Laos decades ago.

•   •   •  

Immigrants need to embrace U.S. culture   [1/30/06]
Rep. J.D. Hayworth is writing up a storm these days, following his book "Whatever It Takes" being published. And judging by the details and references here, he's been doing his homework.

    Hispanic immigrants have a harder time assimilating than other groups largely because the flood of illegal immigrants reinforces cultural and linguistic connections to "the old country." It doesn't help that they are force-fed a steady diet of multiculturalism and told by their own community leaders and our own anti-American elites that America is racist, sexist, intolerant and genocidal. And make no mistake, multiculturalism is the enemy of assimilation, and it can have devastating consequences, as we saw with riots outside Paris and the subway bombers in London.
        Mark Steyn explains: "The London bombers were, to the naked eye, assimilated. They ate fish 'n' chips, played cricket, sported appalling leisurewear. They'd adopted so many trees we couldn't see they lacked the big overarching forest, the essence of identity, of allegiance. As I've said before, you can't assimilate with a nullity, which is what multiculturalism is."
        The Islamists who rioted outside Paris last year weren't merely "disadvantaged youths" demanding more welfare. They were demanding that parts of France be recognized as Islamic territory and that French law be replaced by Islamic law, or sharia. They chanted "Allahou akhbar" while torching cars. They were not and are not interested in accommodation with French society; they want to bury it. France isn't alone; other Western Europe countries that welcomed large numbers of Muslim immigrants without demanding that they assimilate are in the same boat. Tragically, it is too late to do anything about it now.

•   •   •  

UN unveils plan to release untapped wealth of...$7 trillion (and solve the world's problems at a stroke)   [1/30/06]
Loony globalists out themselves in this choice item. As Dave Barry would say, you can't make this stuff up.

    The most potent threats to life on earth - global warming, health pandemics, poverty and armed conflict - could be ended by moves that would unlock $7 trillion - $7,000,000,000,000 (£3.9trn) - of previously untapped wealth, the United Nations claims today.
        The price? An admission that the nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world where financial markets have to be harnessed rather than simply condemned.
    Czech President Vaclav Klaus' statement on globalism remains the benchmark: "You cannot have democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation state."

•   •   •  

"Immigrant" Tragedies on the Uptick?   [1/30/06]
My Vdare.com blog asks rhetorically whether sob stories have been increasing in the last little while as the Congressional showdown approaches.

•   •   •  

Asian-Americans lobby for a Lunar New Year holiday   [1/29/06]
Add the Chinese to the whining immigrant groups demanding special goodies. They used to concentrate on working hard and minding their business, but now they have caught the victimhood virus.

    WASHINGTON - Emily Yee-Mei Lee remembers that as a child in Taiwan, she longed for the next Chinese New Year, that fabulous day when she would receive neon-red envelopes with $100 bills and gorge on scrumptious pork dumplings.
        But in the United States, Lee usually confronts the festival with angst and guilt. Instead of spending the whole day celebrating, she trudges to her job as a computer programmer and ships her 15-year-old son off to school.
        "It makes me feel like it's impossible to be a good Chinese and a good American," said Lee, 47, of Ellicott City, Md. "It's just so hard to properly celebrate the holiday in this country." [...]
        "The Italian Americans have Columbus Day, the Irish have St. Patrick's Day and African Americans have Martin Luther King Jr. Day," said Lau, 60, a manager at the Environmental Protection Agency who lives in Columbia. "But the Asian American community has nothing. It's like we're not real Americans."
    Get that? Immigrants are not "real Americans" unless the majority culture grovels properly with a special honor for their ethnicity — nice!

•   •   •  

Mexican authorities investigate deadly shootout in Acapulco   [1/28/06]
The Mexican government has totally lost control of the drug cartels if it can't stop gun battles in one of their premier tourist locations.

    ACAPULCO, Mexico -- A prolonged shootout erupted between police and alleged drug traffickers in this Pacific coast resort city Friday, killing four of the suspects, all of whom were using fake federal police credentials. Four city police officers were injured.
        The confrontation began Friday afternoon when Acapulco police received a complaint that three Jeeps carrying heavily armed men were headed toward the popular Garita neighborhood, about half a kilometer (0.3 miles) from the tourist zone that skirts Acapulco Bay. [...]
        At a stoplight, some of the suspects opened fire against police. One of the assailants tried to throw a grenade out the window, but it ended up exploding inside the vehicle, setting the Jeep on fire and detonating several rounds of ammunition the suspects were carrying, Torreblanca said.
        Four of the suspects were killed and three others were detained, including two who had fled to a nearby church. Four police officers were wounded, one seriously.
    This story says that three police officers were killed also.
    Interestingly, Caspar Weinberger, President Reagan's Defense Secretary, wrote about the Mexico security threat in his 1996 book "The Next War." Here is a 1998 interview...
    Basically, the scenario there was one that is practiced in some of the war colleges and staff colleges and that is that with the drug problems in Mexico and with the government changing very suddenly, from a very friendly government as it is now to a very hostile government, it becomes a possibility of a place where various drug-running and other crossings of our border could become quite possible. And in the scenario that was used in war colleges that we used in the book. Basically, it becomes necessary to go down in and try to catch this rebel leader in Mexico and restore democratic rule to Mexico. And that is one of the things, of course, that could happen.

•   •   •  

Mexico hires public relations firm to improve its image in U.S.   [1/28/06]
Now this is odd: there are a lot of wire-stories about the Mexican government's hiring Robert Allyn, the Dallas PR flack, like it was news. This story was news in late December and now they are trotting it out again. See Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dec. 21 for an interview with Mr. Allyn. Do they think nobody notices these things?

    WASHINGTON - Fed up with the drumbeat of news stories about drug wars, police corruption, border mayhem and illegal immigration, the government of Mexico has followed a time-honored course for anyone seeking an image makeover: It's hired a PR firm.
        Rob Allyn, a prominent Dallas public relations craftsman who helped shape Mexican President Vicente Fox's stunning election victory in 2000, now shoulders the burden of pushing aside a largely negative U.S. perception of Mexico as a land of drug lords and economic hardship.
        Allyn's objective - and that of his client - is to display Mexico as a nation on the move, with a flourishing democracy and growth-oriented economy, indelibly linked to its neighbor to the north. In Allyn's words, to focus on "the good things that are happening in Mexico" and "correct some of the myths and misperceptions that are out there."

•   •   •  

Border help needed   [1/27/06]
Two Orange County Supervisors note the incarceration costs to their county from Washington's failure to enforce to border.

    Of the approximately 6,000 inmates in the Orange County Jail, 10.5% are foreign nationals with immigration holds. That means more than one in 10 inmates should not even be in this country. According to the Sheriff's Department, the cost to incarcerate these immigrants is $48,847 per day or $17.5 million per year.
        The money spent on jailing illegal immigrant inmates is a drain on county resources that should be serving lawful residents. Then there's the overcrowding problem. According to a recent newspaper article, the jails in Orange County are the third most crowded in the country and the most crowded in California. Illegal immigrant lawbreakers only make this overcrowding worse.

•   •   •  

Immigration vs. environment   [1/27/06]
Former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm has been a principled Democrat by dealing realistically with population growth's deleterious effects on the environment.

    "Liberals should really love borders," [Lamm] said. "They're the only way our social services can sustain."
        Marta Valenzuela Moreno, director of the Longmont-based nonprofit El Comite, which provides resources for Latino families and many immigrants, said the former governor's stance "irritates her."
        Immigrants coming to the United States have the opportunity for a better education, she said, which makes them more responsible citizens.
        Al Bartlett, a retired CU professor famous for his talk about the dangers of population growth, said the United States needs to focus on its total numbers, not just immigrants.
        The U.S. population is expected to hit 300 million this year, up from 150 million in 1950.
        "Immigration is estimated to be about three-quarters of the population growth in the U.S.," Bartlett said. "But the problem is numbers, not people."
In California, virtually all population growth is due to immigration and the children of recent immigrants.

•   •   •  

No-one's Suggesting Mass Deportation — But It Would Pay For Itself   [1/27/06]
Economist Ed Rubenstein analyzes the ridiculous estimate from a lib think tank that deporting America's illegal aliens would cost $206 billion over five years. But, even if that figure were accurate, he says, deportations would pay for themselves in four years. (See the original for documentation.)

    State and local deficits: The comprehensive immigration study sponsored by the National Research Council [The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration, 1997] examined the fiscal impact of immigrants in California. While it did not explicitly compare illegal and legal immigrants, the NRC research staff found that the average immigrant household generated $3,823 more state and local spending than it paid in state and local taxes. (See Table 2.) Using California as a proxy for the national average, I estimate that illegal aliens increase state and local deficits by about $15 billion annually.
        American worker displacement effects: There are roughly 7 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S. - about 3.5 percent of the labor force. Each 1 percent rise in U.S. labor force due to immigration reduces native-born wages by about 0.35 percent, according to George Borjas. [PDF] It follows, then, that illegal immigrant workers reduce wages of U.S.-born workers by approximately 1.2 percent (3.5X0.35).
        If politicians don't care, they should. Assuming native-born Federal, state, and local tax payments fall by the same percent, native workers cough up $26 billion less taxes due to unfair competition from illegal alien workers.
        Total fiscal benefits of deportation are thus estimated at $51 billion per year—$25 billion in deficit reduction and $26 billion in foregone displacement losses.
        At this rate, mass deportation would pay for itself in about four years.
        Plus, of course, we'd get America back.

•   •   •  

Mexican border incursions redux: In 1916, Wilson sent in the Army   [1/27/06]
Here is a rare review of relevant history appearing in a major newspaper. Mexico has never been a friend of the United States, as the past makes clear.

    Though he sees no comparison to the 1916 Villa raid, [Prof Philip E] Koerper said, that doesn't mean the current border situation is not a threat to U.S. security.
        "As long as you can have smugglers and refugees both crossing your border illegally, anybody could cross illegally, including al Qaeda," he said.
        Concerns about terrorists' crossing the border indicate one parallel between this year and 1916 when, during World War I, many Americans suspected Mexico of harboring German agents and saboteurs. Indeed, an intercepted German message, the infamous "Zimmerman telegram," proposing a German-Mexican alliance helped prompt Wilson to take the United States into war in 1917 -- with its Army commanded by the general who had led the pursuit of Villa.

•   •   •  

India history spat hits US   [1/26/06]
Another of the many blessings of diversity immigration is the difficulty for American educators of coping with the demands of foreign fundie groups that their ideas become part of the U.S. curriculum.

    At stake, say scholars who include some of the most elite historians on India, may be a truthful picture of one of the world's emerging powers - one arrived at by academic standards of proof rather than assertions of national or religious pride.
        "Some of the groups involved here are not qualified to write textbooks, they do not draw lines between myth and history," says Anu Mandavilli, an Indian doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California, and activist against the Hindu right. Speaking of one of the groups, the Vedic Foundation in Austin, Texas, she adds, "On their website, they claim that Hindu civilization started 111.5 trillion years ago. That makes Hinduism billions of years older than the Big Bang." (The assertion has since been pulled from the site.)

•   •   •  

Banks aim to help immigrants send money home   [1/26/06]
The amount of cash strip-mined from the United State in remittances each year is now up to a stunning $100 billion. Amoral banks see the remittance senders (many of whom are illegal) as just another business opportunity.

    Remittance fees average about 8 percent of the amount transferred, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. By charging less than the competition, banks are gaining in popularity among immigrants. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on remittances published in November, banks charged just $8.80 on a $300 remittance to Mexico, whereas the US Postal Service charged $10, and money-transfer operator Western Union charged $10.70. Delgado Travel, which offers to pay out in US dollars instead of pesos, thereby avoiding any negative exchange-rate fluctuations, typically charges $12.

•   •   •  

Confront failures, not ignore them   [1/25/06]
An Australian columnist suggests that the government get real about the threat which Muslim immigration has created.

    Thanks to an epidemic of similar law and order problems in other Western democracies with Muslim immigrant populations, even left-wing liberals are beginning to join the dots, and question multiculturalism. It is not the "culturally diverse community, united by an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia" as the Prime Minister, John Howard, put it in his Australia Day address, which is being questioned, but a welfare-driven ideology, corrupted by politicians chasing the ethnic vote, which has encouraged separate identities.
        Travelling through France last month, just a few weeks after race riots there that made headlines around the world, it was startling how quickly the French have reverted to ostrich position: charming, urbane, with their low-energy economy, flaming cars and threat of "youths" from the "cités" ever present.
        Early in the evening of New Year's Eve on the Champs Elysees, car dealerships were busy bolting up plate glass windows as busloads of heavily armed gendarmes descended in preparation for the midnight invasion of barbarians from the "suburbs" - as the ghettos of Arabs and Africans are euphemistically called.
        Nothing much was made in the media of these extraordinary measures, but a barman, when prompted, warned us to go home early because it would soon be "tres dangereux".

•   •   •  

Armed standoff along U.S. border   [1/24/06]
So-called "incursions" appear to be accelerating in their brazenness. Why do we pay $400 billion annually for a military and then not have them on the border?

    Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas Monday afternoon, according to Texas police and the FBI.
        Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department.
        Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for backup. Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward, Doyal said.
        "It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."
    According to Lou Dobbs, however, Mexican army vehicles were 12 miles into the United States.
    The incident occurred in Hunt Smith (ph) County, Texas, about 50 miles east of El Paso on the Rio Grand River. Law enforcement officials say three SUVs and one Mexican military Humvee crossed the Rio Grande into the United States. The SUVs then drove about 12 miles into the United States before sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers caught up with them and forced them to turn back.
        After an armed standoff with nearly 30 sheriff's deputies and border patrol agents, two of the SUVs returned to the Mexican side of the river. A third SUV was recovered by U.S. deputies with more than 1,400 pounds of marijuana inside.

•   •   •  

Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure   [1/24/06]
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born member of the Netherlands Parliament, remains one of the most fearless defenders of western values, despite constant death threats from Islamic detractors.

    Hirsi Ali describes the anti-US attacks of 11 September 2001 as pivotal to her questioning of Islam.
        She remembers the moment when she realised that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had studied the Koran, like her, in the mid-1980s.
        She says: "I grabbed the Koran and I started to read what Bin Laden had written and... I put (his) citations next to what is written in the Koran and I realised that, yes, a lot of it is part of my religion and what do I think of that?"
    The BBC also has a recent radio interview with Ms. Ali, "Taking a Stand.

•   •   •  

Pool staff bashed as youths riot   [1/23/06]
What is it about water and Muslims in Australia? There seems to be a problem when the sons of Allah see Aussies swimming, surfing and enjoying the water in any form.

    FOUR swimming pool staff have been beaten in an attack in Melbourne's north.
        Stunned witnesses said about 30 youths had punched and kicked staff, including a young woman, on the grass at Oak Park Aquatic Centre about 4pm yesterday.
        One witness, Alex, said families had recoiled in horror at the bashings.
        "I've never seen anything like it," Alex said.
        "I thought, 'Not another Cronulla'.
        "There seemed to be dozens of people involved, with most wading into the staff and people trying to help them.
        "They all appeared to be Middle-Eastern youths.
    The Australian press still has difficulty saying "Muslim" when there is crime involved.

•   •   •  

Kinky's Run For Governor Of Texas   [1/22/06]
Kinky Friedman is a musician and mystery book writer, and a man of wide talents and interests. One of his best known songs is "They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore."
    Now he is running for governor of Texas, an election that just got a lot more interesting.

    His two main issues are illegal immigration — he wants to close the border until Mexico cracks down — and education. He's running as the teacher's best friend.
        On the campaign trail, Friedman is one candidate who needs no introduction. Everybody, it seems, wants to get a little Kinky.

•   •   •  

Afghan women in the driving seat   [1/22/06]
Not that long ago, Taliban men said that women driving was "satanic." Now Afghan women are learning to drive, though piggyman attitudes remain.

    Girls can go to school, at least in the big cities like Herat and Kabul, and a fragile peace now exists in a war-torn country that has known only brutality and chaos since 1979. But some things, it seems, have not really changed at all.
        Mamozai's Ladies' and Gentlemen's Driving School was one of the first driving schools in Afghanistan to allow women to enrol. The Taleban thought the idea of teaching women how to drive was "satanic", but Mr Mamozai's school now has more than 200 female graduates.
        Even so, the women are often told to "sit up like a man" by their male instructors as they navigate the precarious back-roads of Kabul, and to "stop driving like a woman."
        But then that is hardly surprising. Most of the instructors are ex-Taleban and they do not really think women should drive at all. They certainly would not allow their own wives to drive.

•   •   •  

Matrimonial multiplication   [1/22/06]
Is polygamy the next form of marriage diversity to be argued? Columnist Debra Saunders thinks so.

    When social conservatives argue legalizing same-sex "marriage" could lead to legalized polygamy, same-sex "marriage" advocates either laugh or sneer. It's a scare tactic, they say. It'll never happen.
        Last year, however, as Canada legalized same-sex "marriage," Prime Minister Paul Martin commissioned a $150,000 study to debunk the polygamy argument. Big mistake: The study confirmed the scare tactic by recommending Canada repeal its anti-polygamy law.
        It also suggested a legal challenge to Canada's anti-polygamy laws would succeed. "Why criminalize behavior?" asked Martha Bailey, one of the study's three law-professor authors. "We don't criminalize adultery."
        Confession time: I am one of those who, for years, has argued that legalizing same-sex "marriage" would not open the door for polygamy. The limit for marriages would remain two, I argued. Two doesn't mean three or four.
        Wrong. In these politically correct times, do-gooders expand definitions until words -- or institutions -- lose all meaning. Marriage can mean what you want it to mean. And if you don't prosecute all crimes in a category, you can't prosecute one.
    The article doesn't mention the real push factor for polygamy legalization — immigrants from societies which permit polygamy, namely Islamic and a variety of others including Hmong.

•   •   •  

Latino homicides on sharp increase: Gangs in Oakland, San Francisco cited as reason for growth   [1/22/06]
"Changing demographics" at work once again...

    Changing demographics and rising gang violence have brought a dramatic increase in the number of homicides among Latinos in Oakland and San Francisco, even as the number of African American victims has fallen, police and community leaders say.
        Oakland saw twice as many Latinos slain last year as in 2004, while San Francisco saw an increase of 50 percent during the same period. Authorities in both cities say the problem largely sneaked up on them because they were focused on the larger -- and still more prevalent -- problem of African Americans killing others of their own race.
        "We know why it happened -- we let things get out of hand in the Fruitvale (district) because police were so busy in other parts of East Oakland and West Oakland," said City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who represents the Fruitvale neighborhood where teenagers Alberto Salvador Villarreal and Ever Ramos were killed last weekend in separate shootings.
    Interestingly, the namesake son of Councilman De La Fuente (who is running for mayor) is in jail accused of rape. One of the four victims is 15.

•   •   •  

Illegal alien held in twin slayings, kidnap   [1/21/06]
Two boys were slain, beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien whom the family had befriended. After the murders, Richard Toledo then kidnapped the boys' mother.

    Shivering and soaking-wet after hiding in a drainage ditch near a Garden State Parkway rest area overnight, a coatless Richard Toledo, who also may be known as Richard Toledo Gonzalez, surrendered meekly to authorities yesterday morning after a Spanish-speaking state trooper convinced him to give up.
        It was a far cry from the violence authorities say he perpetrated the night before at the home he shared with the woman who took him in and her sons, ages 14 and 7. The boys' bloodied, battered bodies were found in the basement Thursday night by their father after he got a call from his wife saying she had been kidnapped.
        Wanda Gonzalez, 38, somehow managed to call her estranged husband, Carlos, on a cell phone sometime before 8 p.m. Thursday, saying she had been abducted and was being forced to withdraw money from a Commerce Bank automated teller machine, State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said.

•   •   •  

Chilly welcome for Indian 'ghost'   [1/21/06]
Ghosts are alive and well in India, walking the streets and annoying their innocent relatives. Or at least that's the belief still extant in India's rural areas.

    An Indian man is being refused entry to his house - because his family say he is a spirit come back to haunt them.
        Raju Raghuvanshi was greeted with cries of "ghost" and neighbours locking doors when he returned from a short spell in jail to his village in Madhya Pradesh.
        He had fallen ill in prison and was taken to hospital. Relatives heard he had died and performed his last rites.
        Now, unable to convince them he is alive and well, he is staying nearby and has asked the police for help.
    Apparently India has a "ghost fair" with a 100-year history where families can get needed exorcisms of afflicted relatives. Why hasn't Bollywood responded with a musical Indian Ghostbusters?

•   •   •  

Vang must pay $52K restitution to victims   [1/20/06]
Hmong mass murderer Chai Vang has been ordered to pay minimal costs to the surviving victims of his 2004 killing spree in Wisconsin. (The dead are memorialized here.) The amounts listed are mostly for lost wages and travel expenses connected to the trial. Following are representative of the full list contained in the article.

    •   $1,320 to David Drew, brother of slain hunter Dennis Drew. The money is for David Drew's lost wages in attending the trial.
    •   $2,206 to Anthony Drew, son of Dennis Drew, for four days of lost work immediately after his father's death.
    •   $2,419 to Craig Schue, the fiance of slain hunter Jessica Willers, who was the daughter of Terry Willers. The money is for lost wages and travel costs related to the aftermath of the crime.
    Vang was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last September (Wisconsin has no death penalty). He is demanding a new trial, and would need a taxpayer-provided public defender since the "Hmong community" is apparently tapped out for supplying expensive attorneys. Perhaps cooler heads among them decided that a Hmong mass murderer who testified in court that some of his victims "deserved to die" would be better off in prison forever.
    His family squawked loud and long at the sentencing that the jury was not "diverse."

•   •   •  

Countdown to Baby 300 million   [1/19/06]
This commentary is remarkable for what is left out, namely any environmental awareness of what 300 million Americans means in terms of quality of life for the future, and related issues like water supply, air quality, food availability, open space, species preservation, etc.

    Inside that rapidly growing population number lies a tale about who we are as a nation, where we've been and where we're going. The U.S. population hit 100 million around 1915, when the nation was largely white and rural and the three biggest states were New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. It stood at 141 million at the dawn of the Baby Boom generation in 1946, and topped 200 million by 1967.
        It will take just 39 years for the impending leap to 300 million, with New York now trailing California and Texas in population. Illinois, at an estimated 12.7 million residents, is now fifth. The biggest population boom is in the suburbs, even among new immigrants.
        The pace to 400 million should be even faster. With a birth every eight seconds, a death every 12 seconds and an immigrant entering the country every 31 seconds, the Census Bureau estimates the U.S. population increases by one person every 14 seconds. [...]
        The rest of us, however, may want to take a moment to revel in our national bigness. Let us be the first to wish a happy birthday to Baby 300 million, whoever you may be.
    Just what value is "bigness" pray tell? The environmental movement must be partially blamed for such vacuous stupidity to appear in print, The entire issue of domestic overpopulation has fallen off the national radar because of environmentalism's slide into leftist political correctness, largely led by the Sierra Club (which secretly accepted $100 million on the condition that it avoid discussion of immigration as an environmental issue).

•   •   •  

Homeless in Hminneapolis   [1/18/06]
Minnesota is now home to an additional 5,000 Hmong refugees as of the last couple years. Most are illiterate and have no jobs skills. Consequently, some families are winding up homeless. Even the sympathetic original article calls the situation "eminently predictable."

•   •   •  

Infiltration by the book   [1/18/06]
Cal Thomas warns that Islam seeks to destroy America and has sent agents to undermine western civilization by any means necessary. He also notes the rapid population growth within Islam of 3 percent annually which computes to a doubling time of 23 years.

    Last week at the start of the London trial of radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri, evidence was presented how he encouraged followers at the Finsbury Park mosque to kill non-Muslims.
        In lectures, recordings and writings, the imam said Adolf Hitler was sent into the world to punish the Jews. Repeatedly, said the prosecutor, Abu Hamza told his followers they must fight for Allah and this involves a religious mandate to murder Jews, kuffars (nonbelievers in Islam) and "apostates," such as leaders of Arab nations like Egypt. Abu Hamza has pleaded innocent to all 15 charges, including nine counts of solicitation of murder, four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior intended to incite racial hatred and two counts related to the possessing offensive sound recordings and a copy of the Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad.
        The talks and written materials are not only about war. Abu Hamza also delivers diatribes about Britain's licensing laws, the use of additives in food, adultery, the role of women and the "evils" of democracy.
        Abu Hamza repeatedly defines "jihad" as an avenue for establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, governed by the most radical interpretation of Sharian religious law.
        Prosecutors introduced as evidence a 10-volume "blueprint for terrorism" they say was discovered in Abu Hamza's house. Among the targets for "causing disturbance but not loss of life" are Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. Chapter headings include "The need to study the principles of war," and "The duty of assassination and kidnap." Other subheadings offer advice on reconnaissance, infiltration, ambush and how to manufacture explosive devices, open locks and train assassins. One section details plans to hit buildings with large populations, including museums, ports and archaeological sites and to attack VIPs. David Perry, prosecuting counsel, told the court, "This is a manual, a blueprint for terrorism."

•   •   •  

Former U.S. Rep Hopes to Return to DC to Tackle U.S. Immigration Policy   [1/18/06]
Brian Bilbray was former mayor of Imperial Beach and three-term congressman who has been a strong defender of the environment as well as of U.S. immigration law. An avid surfer, he once used a bulldozer to clean up raw sewage flowing into the ocean from Mexico.

    Republican Brian Bilbray is running for the 50th Congressional District seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Bilbray says he wants to return to Washington to straighten out what he sees as the mess that is American illegal immigration policy, a job he believes should include holding states accountable for ignoring federal law that prohibits offering benefits to illegal aliens without making those benefits available to U.S. citizens.
        "Even my children, when I brought them back from Washington, are charged out-of-state tuition, while illegal aliens in California are being rewarded with in-state tuition in violation of the federal law," the Congressional candidate notes. "And I think there's a lot more [similar policy] we have to go back and take care of."

•   •   •  

Thousands may lose special U.S. status   [1/17/06]
"Temporary Protected Status" (TPS) has been another amnesty variation where foreigners come in supposedly for a limited time, but never leave.

    Salvadoran President Tony Saca has been calling President Bush and other top officials in an effort to win another extension of TPS, officials said.
        Across the nation, more than 220,000 Salvadorans, 70,000 Hondurans and 3,600 Nicaraguans could be forced to leave or go underground if TPS is removed, according to DHS numbers. The 2000 census showed Florida had 80,000 Nicaraguans, 41,000 Hondurans and 21,000 Salvadorans, almost all in South Florida, though there's no data on how many are illegal migrants.
        The number of Central American beneficiaries of TPS has been declining gradually as they marry U.S. citizens, return home or find employers to sponsor a more permanent status, DHS data shows.

•   •   •  

Mexican military incursions reported   [1/17/06]
More details about Mexico's unfriendly actions toward this country.

    A total of 216 incursions by suspected Mexican military units have been documented since 1996 -- 75 in California, 63 in Arizona and 78 in Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.
        Attacks on Border Patrol agents in the past few years have been attributed to current or former Mexican military personnel. U.S. law-enforcement officials have long thought that current and former Mexican soldiers are being paid to protect drug shipments bound for the United States.
        Several agents said the attacks have escalated in the past two years as U.S. security efforts on the border have increased -- including the July shooting of two agents in an ambush near Nogales, Ariz., by assailants in black commando-type clothing, who fired more than 50 rounds. Authorities said the gunmen used military-style cover-and-concealment tactics to escape back into Mexico. No one has been arrested.

•   •   •  

Homicide Rate in Mexico is Appalling   [1/17/06]
Violent crime, particularly against women, is apparently an entrenched part of Mexican culture; yet President Bush wants the U.S. to merge with the third-world nation, where the average education is the sixth grade and drug cartels cannot be brought under control by the government.

    It is believed that approximately 500 women have been murdered in the state of Chihuahua since the late 1980s. Many have simply disappeared. The killing of women has continued virtually unabated since 1993. The causes of this aura of femicide vary — domestic violence, suspected narco-executions, gang shootings, and sexual assaults. Many of the murders of these women seem to follow the long-pattern of young women who suddenly disappear and are later found raped and murdered.
        Violence against women is epidemic in Mexico. In Ciudad Juarez alone, six years of killing sprees have claimed the lives of 182 women. Many human rights organizations believe that figure to be even greater, with many still missing. At least 100 of the Ciudad Juarez victims fit a pattern in which a young, slender woman was sexually assaulted, strangled, and dumped in the surrounding desert. In the state of Chihuahua a significant number of cases of young women and adolescents were reported missing.
    Remember that in Los Angeles, 95 percent of homicide warrants target illegal aliens. Mexican immigration means importing crime generally and violence against women in particular.
    In murders per capita, Mexico ranks #6 in the world.

•   •   •  

Snuff out Astoria's hookah bars: foes   [1/16/06]
Here's another case of Muslims demanding special treatment because they are "special." The city of New York enacted a smoke-free air law on the basis of health concerns. But Muzzies insist their "culture" should make them exempt, and Democratic city councilman Peter Vallone is prepared to go to bat for them even though citizens who live near the place have complained of its effects.

    "The hookahs allow us to come together and unwind," Beirut-born Mahmoud Abraham, co-owner of the cafe, said. "It's an important part of our culture."

•   •   •  

Saudi interest in America   [1/16/06]
Saudi investments in the United States are substantial — $400 billion to $800 billion — yet are shielded from public scrutiny.

    Meanwhile, substantial Saudi and Gulf financial contributions "to bring the proper message to America's brightest minds," are pouring into U.S. educational institutions through Arab and Islamic centers and professorial chairs. Last month the prince gave $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities. According to the Center for Religious Freedom, the Saudis also supply textbooks for public libraries, schools and colleges, and provide the content concerning Islam to some U.S. textbook publishers.
        The Saudis' potential influence on U.S. and international media was recently illustrated by the prince's purchase of 5.6 percent of voting shares in News Corp., the world's largest publisher of English newspapers. Moreover, Reuters reported on Dec. 5 that the prince announced his plan to "spread the right message" via a new television channel, "The Message," to broadcast to the U.S. within two years.
        Yet, information regarding the magnitude of the Saudi economic infiltration into the United States is secret. The U.S. Treasury's interpretation of the census law, supported by a 1982 court decision, shields this data from the public. On Oct. 27, 1982, the American Jewish Congress (AJC) was denied information requested under its own FOIA inquiry, by the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. (Civ. A. No. 81-1745). The AJC litigated its FOIA case up to the Supreme Court, but the government won.

•   •   •  

Mexican soldiers defy border: 216 incursions into U.S. made by Mexican military   [1/16/06]
Mexico is a hostile nation, not a friendly neighbor, and it's high time Washington acted accordingly. When there are 216 military incursions in nine years, that's serious.

    Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said the numbers show that suggestions for increasing Border Patrol resources or building a fence along the border won't do enough to secure it.
        "It is a military problem,'' said Tancredo, who supports immigration reform. "We should commit the military to the border -- tomorrow. I mean, with armor and weapons.''
        Speaking by phone from El Paso, the congressman recalled his own confusion and disbelief when Border Patrol officials first told him of the incursions several years ago.
        But the more time he spent at the border, the more he realized how serious the problem is, Tancredo said.
        "Down here, there are war stories where you have Mexican military pulling up when drug traffickers are coming across, cocking their weapons, challenging our guys,'' he said "Shots have been fired. ... This is a problem here. I don't think anybody understands it unless they're here.''
    Here is the military incursion card mentioned in the story which Border Patrol officers receive.

•   •   •  

Hmong refugees beginning to feel at home in California   [1/15/06]
The nation is eight trillion dollars in the hole; California overspends by $11 million daily, yet the State Department annually welcomes tens of thousands of high-maintenence refugees like we had all the money in the world.

    For instance, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set aside $19 million for states where most of the Hmong settled, but cities like Fresno also spent millions on housing, job training and English classes.
        With the Hmong, as with all refugee resettlement, there is more than obligation, he said.
        "The people who first came to this country were essentially refugees,'' Climent said. "They were refugees escaping religious persecution.
        "The U.S. is a nation of refugees,'' he said. "It's part of our makeup and our history.''
    Actually, we are a nation of citizens.

•   •   •  

Latinos' anti-DWI efforts a tough sell   [1/15/06]
This article points out how entrenched driving drunk is in the hispanic psyche: the very idea that the blotto piloting of a vehicle might be irresponsible is simply incomprehensible to many from south of the border.

    "We all know that the problem exists," said Ricardo Mata, a Venezuelan-born spokesman for the Latino Center for the Development of Leadership and Family, a local faith-based advocacy group. "Some just want to deny it. It's part of the machismo culture."
        Of the roughly 1,800 Hispanic men arrested last year, more than half were for charges of driving while impaired, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which this month began an effort to educate Latinos on the dangers of drunken driving. The average blood-alcohol level among those men was 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, police say. [...]
        Many immigrants are coming to America from countries where drunken driving is tolerated more, says Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition, who condemns drunken driving. In some Latino cultures, she said, offenders are let go after bribing police.
        Also, women, family, churches and others structures of society that promote responsible behavior are less prevalent in the immigrant community. Drinking is one of the few social outlets available, immigrants say.
        "If you put a group of men together, any group of men, without any social controls -- family, church, established relations -- you're going to have problems," said Rodolfo de la Garza, director of the Project on Immigration, Ethnicity and Race, at Columbia University's Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.
    Incidentally, I didn't realize how pervasive and problematic drunk driving among hispanics was until I started investigating the individual victims of illegal immigration in the website Immigrations Human Cost, leading to the Vdare.com article Diversity Is Strength! Its Also... Drunk Driving.

•   •   •  

California: Effort to remove lead from Mexican treats   [1/15/06]
Many varieties of Mexican candy contains toxic amounts of lead which can cause serious health problems including loss of intelligence. More than 75 percent of new lead poisoning cases in the state occur in hispanic children. Yet California has been dragging its feet in getting the poisonous candy off the shelves because "It would seem culturally insensitive," according to earlier reports.

    Grasshoppers are even more lethal. Kids eat them by the handful, ingesting as much as 2,300 micrograms of lead at a time.
        Just 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood can permanently lower a child's IQ by four to five points, according to Maricela Narvaez-Foster of Alameda County's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. Lead poisoning is hard to detect because its initial symptoms -- irritability, fatigue and weight loss -- often are attributed to other causes.
    See the thorough investigative report done by the Orange County Register in 2004: "Toxic Treats".
    And while Mexican culture's antipathy to scholarly pursuits is well known, does lowered IQ, caused by ingesting lead-laced food products, contribute measurably to hispanics' shocking school drop-out rate?
    No one seems to be asking that uncomfortable question.

•   •   •  

Merging the masses?   [1/14/06]
In Hopkins, Minnesota, the local Catholics are trying to socially engineer a bilingual church. It's all happy diversity talk, trying to paper over the impossibility of sharing a church with people you literally cannot understand, whose culture is not yours. That is not a community.

    Today, more than 300 Latinos flock to St. John the Evangelist Church in Hopkins, nearly doubling the size of the congregation and injecting instant cultural diversity. A recent celebration featured lively mariachi music, dance and fervent prayer -- winding down at the very un-Minnesotan hour of 2 a.m.
        While Latinos are still a small fraction of the 750,000 Catholics in the Twin Cities area, they won't be for long. One in five metro Catholics will be Latino in the next 15 years, archdiocese officials project.
        Church leaders are grappling with how to best integrate the newcomers into their parishes. For now, the Spanish speakers and English speakers function as two congregations under one roof.

•   •   •  

Exchange students welcomed   [1/14/06]
Of course Saudis in Pittsburgh are not "exchange" students because there are no American kids dopey enough to reciprocally attend college in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are here as an indefensible part of Bush foreign policy, endangering Americans for no good reason. It may please the Saudi royal family, but the program is a total loser for the United States.

    In an effort to improve Saudi-American relations, the Saudi government recently made dramatic increases in scholarship money toward Saudi enrollments in American colleges ­ totaling 5,000 full four-year, government-funded scholarships.
        "Several months ago, King Abdullah had a meeting with President Bush, and the king made an agreement to have more Saudi students go to study abroad in America," al-Othmany explained.
        However, many Saudi exchange students have not yet been able to enter the United States because of the difficulty of getting an American visa.
        "Here should be around 200 students here, but only 35 have gotten here so far because of the visa issues," al-Othmany said.
    See my December Vdare.com analysis, "Saudi Students Coming to a College near You"

•   •   •  

Defending immigration laws   [1/14/06]
Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA) makes the case for enforcement-based legislation in a common sense explanation.

    Those in this country legally who are abiding by our nation's laws should not fear this legislation. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is unfair to reward people who break our immigrations laws. If we allow some to ignore our immigration laws, it is a slap in the face to those law-abiding immigrants who patiently complied with the process. While I am pleased HR 4437 begins to address our nation's failed immigration policies, it is only a first step. As we move forward, we must reject all proposals that contain any and all forms of amnesty. Rewarding lawbreakers will only weaken any proposal aimed at strengthening the system.

•   •   •  

These Women Are Prisoners in Paris   [1/14/06]
Muslim women would be better off at home if the French authorities continue to ignore the crimes against them. Please note how cowardly young Muslim males are: in this case, a 17-year-old girl was burned alive by three sons of Allah because one was too afraid to confront her boyfriend directly.

    It was a chilly October Saturday in 2002 when Sohane Benziane, 17, stepped off the 6 p.m. bus. She walked swiftly toward her apartment complex. Like most girls living in the bleak housing projects known as cites that ring the French capital, Sohane felt safer being off the streets before dark. Djamel Derrer, an 18-year-old Muslim who lived in the same projects, had been counting on this. He'd anticipated Sohane's arrival and waited with two friends as she entered Cite Balzac. Stepping out from a darkened doorway, Djamel blocked Sohane's path. The other boys closed in behind her. Sohane was trapped.
        Moving quickly, Djamel grabbed the young woman's arm and dragged her into the garbage room of his 15- story building. While his friends guarded the door, Djamel pushed Sohane to the ground and beat her. Then he doused her in gasoline and struck a match. Sohane was burned alive in a fire so fierce that, according to the autopsy report, her features completely melted away. Police found her charred body among the trash cans on the ground floor. Three days later, after investigating a report of a Muslim boy who had shown up at the local hospital with burns on his hands, police arrested Djamel.
        What had Sohane done to so anger Djamel? The shocking truth: nothing. At least, not directly. Days earlier, Djamel and Sohane's boyfriend had gotten into a fight. (Sohane herself was not present.) Afraid to tackle the stronger boy, Djamel backed off-and instead plotted his revenge on an easier and unsuspecting target: Sohane.
        "In Djamel's mind, pouring gasoline on Sohane was the same as damaging another man's property," says Kahina, 24, Sohane's sister. "Sohane was just an object. In the cité women have little value. It's easy to kill a girl here. Their lives are not important. Authorities look the other way and just ignore the violence."

•   •   •  

Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposes Alito   [1/14/06]
Apparently the SCOTUS nominee has not groveled sufficiently, according to Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) who spoke against Judge Alito in the hearings.

    "We do not argue that he possesses a brilliant legal mind and has had an accomplished career. But this is not the controlling issue," Gonzalez said. "The issue is what judicial philosophy guides and motivates such a gifted and talented person in his decision-making process."
        Gonzalez cited a handful of cases that he said cause him concern. Among them, a case in which prosecutors excluded five people from a jury who understood Spanish.
        The case featured testimony in Spanish that was translated by police and used by prosecutors. Because a clear majority of Spanish-speakers in America are Latino, Alito's decision in the case had the effect of barring Latinos from juries, Gonzalez said.

•   •   •  

Come October, Baby Will Make 300 Million or So   [1/13/06] population growth nytimes

How amazing that this story not only appeared in the New York Times, but was on the first page, though below the fold. And while the article contained little if anything about the environmental consequences of the U.S. having twice the ecologically sustainable number of people for the carrying capacity, the lack of celebration regarding increasing diversity is a welcome change.

    If the experts are right, some time this month, perhaps somewhere in the suburban South or West, a couple, most likely white Anglo-Saxon Protestants or Hispanic, will conceive a baby who, when born in October, will become the 300 millionth American.
        As of yesterday, the Census Bureau officially pegged the resident population of the United States at closing in on 297,900,000. The bureau estimates that with a baby being born every 8 seconds, someone dying every 12 seconds and the nation gaining an immigrant every 31 seconds on average, the population is growing by one person every 14 seconds.
        At that rate, the total is expected to top 300 million late this year. But with those projections adjusted monthly and the number of births typically peaking during the summer, the benchmark is likely to be reached about nine months from now. [...]
        While most Americans are still Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Mr. Haub said, Hispanic mothers have higher birth rates, and no state has more births than California, where most newborns are of Hispanic origin. There, Jose ranked fourth in 2004 among the most popular baby names for boys after Daniel, Anthony and Andrew.
        What is more certain is that the 300 millionth American will live longer - to 85 or 90 on average - and in a nation that will be more crowded.
        Today, there are still plenty of wide-open spaces, with about 80 people per square mile in the nation. But density varies widely: some Texas counties are home to fewer than one person per square mile; Manhattan houses 67,000 per square mile.
        "By the time the 300 millionth individual gets to adulthood, many of the cities today we consider small and nice to live in won't be so nice," Mr. Haub said.

•   •   •  

End Polygamy Ban, Report Urges Ottawa   [1/13/06]
Poor Canada — look what Muslim immigration has brought.

    OTTAWA -- A new study for the federal Justice Department says Canada should get rid of its law banning polygamy and change other legislation to help women and children living in such multiple-spouse relationships.
        "Criminalization does not address the harms associated with valid foreign polygamous marriages and plural unions, in particular the harms to women," says the report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
        The research paper is part of a controversial $150,000 polygamy project, launched a year ago and paid for by the Justice Department and Status of Women Canada.
        The paper by three law professors at Queen's University in Kingston argues that Section 293 of the Criminal Code banning polygamy serves no useful purpose and in any case is rarely prosecuted.

•   •   •  

America's Vaticrats Wish You Happy National Migration Week!   [1/12/06]
My latest Vdare.com column criticizes the Catholic Church for its anti-borders activities.

    In a cathedral near you, open-border-loving Catholics may be even now be celebrating their annual National Migration Week (January 8-14). The occasion is not as spectacularly colorful as, say, Groundhog Day (February 2), but it does function as a handy organizing device for shredding American sovereignty.
    Oh, and here's mention in the Washington Times of my animal cruelty article.

•   •   •  

Immigrant driver's license bill revived   [1/11/06]
Of course, "One-bill" Gil Cedillo is pushing identification/licenses for illegal aliens, not legal immigrants who get the same DLs as the rest of us. And a state-issued legal ID is the key to the kingdom in terms of receiving the same benefits as citizens.
    This attempt is #6 on the part of Mr. Cedillo to get drivers licenses issued to illegal aliens in California. He is nothing if not obsessed on this issue.

    Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, says the public is at risk when more than 2 million illegal immigrants drive on the state's roads untested, unlicensed and uninsured. "Californians are moderate, fair, and they want the same thing all Americans want: security and safety," Cedillo told reporters in his office.

•   •   •  

Immigration vote stirs concern about Boehner   [1/11/06]
Tom DeLay's removal of himself from contention for position of House Majority Leader bears watching because of the candidates now announced. In short, Rep. Boehner would NOT be a good choice for the issue of immigration enforcement, while Rep. Blunt is far better.

    Mr. Blunt, the acting House majority leader, voted for last month's crackdown on illegal immigration and a 2004 amendment that said local law-enforcement officials should be allowed to report illegal aliens to federal authorities. He also voted against a 2002 bill that was termed a mini-amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens under Section 245(i) of the immigration code. Mr. Boehner voted the opposite way each time, to the chagrin of those seeking more limits on immigration.
        "I know how he feels about the issue -- he is absolutely opposed to what we are trying to accomplish," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and the leader of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.
        Mr. Tancredo said Mr. Blunt, however, is open to a get-tough approach.
        "Blunt is someone I can work with on this issue. I believe he is fairly committed to making it work," he said.
        One Republican aide who asked not to be named said Mr. Boehner's vote against the immigration bill was "sending tremors through the caucus."
        The vote came while most House Republicans were moving in the opposite direction -- toward a crackdown on illegal immigration. Mr. Boehner cast one of 17 Republican "no" votes on the bill.

•   •   •  

Report: MS-13 gang hired to murder Border Patrol   [1/10/06]
No surprise here. Salvadoran MS-13 gangbangers and Mexican alien smugglers are a perfect match. We could see the border turn into a bloody war zone, with U.S. Border agents bearing the brunt.

    Mexican alien smugglers plan to pay violent gang members and smuggle them into the United States to murder Border Patrol agents, according to a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin.
        The Officer Safety Alert, dated Dec. 21, warns agents that the smugglers intend to bring members of the international Mara Salvatrucha street gang also known as MS-13 into the country for the deadly mission.
        "Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexico border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers," the alert states.
        MS-13, which has a strong base in El Salvador, is considered by the FBI to be one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States, with more than 20,000 members.

•   •   •  

Voodoo Day celebrated in Benin   [1/10/06]
Some people dislike the BBC for its anti-Americanism and extreme political correctness. But where else can you learn the news about voodoo in Africa?

    Followers of the once-banned religion have been dancing, drumming, praying as animals are slaughtered in ceremonies.
        Of Benin's seven million citizens, 65% believe in Voodoo. The day has been a national holiday for a decade.

•   •   •  

Mexico Demands U.S. Allow More Immigration   [1/10/06]
"Mexico demands" — how many times have we heard that before? Mexico is a failing state and thinks it can emigrate its way out of deep-seated problems.

    Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement.
        Meeting in Mexico's capital, the regional officials pledged to do more to fight migrant trafficking, but indirectly condemned a U.S. bill that would make illegal entry a felony and extend border walls.
        "Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.
        The countries represented at the meeting — including Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Panama — created a working group to design a regional policy to avoid migrant abuse and to follow the course of the legislation.
        "There has to be an integrated reform that includes a temporary worker program, but also the regularization of those people who are already living in receptor countries," Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said.

•   •   •  

Many female fetuses aborted in India, 20-year study finds   [1/10/06]
The better education of Indian elites does not prevent them from aborting females.

    The British medical journal, the Lancet, published a study Monday quantifying the phenomenon: The report estimated that Indian women aborted a stunning 10 million girls in the two decades leading up to 1998. The study, analyzing data from a national survey of 1.1 million households, calculated that 500,000 female fetuses were aborted each year in India.
        The "girl deficit," as the study labeled it, was more prevalent among educated women and did not vary according to religion, the study found.
        "What surprised me was that the data suggest it is a problem right throughout society, particularly among the elites, who have more access to ultrasound equipment and have more spending money," said Dr. Prabhat Jha of St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto, an author of the study. "You would think that maybe this happens in more repressive states toward women, but it is happening everywhere in India."
    Foreigners from India are considered "model immigrants" in America because they are generally hard working and successful economically; however there are indications that they bring sex-selection abortion with them.
    Update Jan 13: The Christian Science Monitor focuses on the class of Indians who are aborting their female fetuses in "India's 'girl deficit' deepest among educated"

•   •   •  

Cleanup relies on day labor of Latinos   [1/10/06]
The slow repair of New Orleans continues with illegal labor.

    Since shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the 26-year-old Honduran had done America's dirtiest work, cleaning this city's muck- and mold-caked schools and post offices and gutting its fetid houses.
        "It stinks bad, you don't know how it stinks inside your house," he said. "We do a hard job, American people, they not doing. . . . One day, the United States is going to know how much we help."
        Two days later, Antonio was in handcuffs, busted by ICE, the new acronym for the immigration police, and facing deportation or -- because he has been deported before -- prison.

•   •   •  

India 'loses 10m female births'   [1/09/06]
India's sex-selection abortion is as common as ever, particularly since the technology of ultrasound has become available. That way, Indians can abort the unwanted female fetus rather than murder a full-term baby when it is born as a girl.
    In 1990, economist Amartya Sen estimated the worldwide number of missing females at 100 million.

    More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research.
        Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year.
        Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1m households in 1998.
    Since this is the BBC, the article predictably names the cause as economic, that girls cost more, particularly due to dowries. However, Indian immigrants bring sex-selective abortion with them to America as shown in a New York Times article, "Clinics' Pitch to Indian Emigres: It's a Boy":
    Some people would call it niche marketing — an effort by companies to promote their products to one of the country's fastest-growing ethnic groups.
        But the products in question are not chewing gum or financial services. They are procedures to preselect the sex of a child or, in the case of one advertiser, to identify the sex of the fetus as early as five weeks into a pregnancy. And the target market is immigrants from India, where sex-determination tests were outlawed seven years ago in a still unsuccessful effort to thwart the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses.
        Such ads would be illegal in India, which has struggled for years to discourage women from exploiting medical technology to assure themselves of giving birth to boys. Now, Indians in the United States and Canada find themselves being courted by American companies that promise to help do just that.

•   •   •  

Heading home: Peter Dut Angon   [1/09/06]
Peter is a member of the so-called Lost Boys, young refugees who escaped Sudan by walking many miles to escape warfare in their country. But unlike many who come to America and become entranced by material riches here, he wants to return to his nation with a medical education and help rebuild the place. Congratulations and good luck to a serious young man!
    The world would be much better off if there were more people like Peter Dut Angon willing to do the hard work of raising up their third-world homes to a better standard of living. We Americans live in a free and wealthy nation because our ancestors built it.

    After I finish my remaining two years and receive my Bachelor's of Science and Nursing degree I want to go back to Sudan and work in the health department.
        This achievement will benefit my Sudanese community.
        I shall join in, rebuilding Sudan, when there are no more gun-sounds and when our leaders commit to what they have promised.
        I will have courage and tell young people that there are both good and bad times in one's life.

•   •   •  

Concern over immigration is no illusion   [1/09/06]
Here is a rare fact-based opinion piece — it is jam-packed with information. And from the painfully PC Minneapolis Star Tribune!

    • A recent survey conducted in Mexico by the Pew Hispanic Center reveals a startling fact: Twenty-one percent of Mexicans surveyed said they would enter this country illegally if given the opportunity. (That's over 21 million people.) Roberto Suro, the center's director, told reporters that the survey indicates "how broad and deep the whole psychology of migration has penetrated in Mexico."
        "About 80 to 85 percent of the migration from Mexico in recent years has been undocumented," according to a separate Pew Hispanic Center study.
        • Since the mid-1990s, the most rapid growth in our nation's illegal immigrant population has been in states that previously had relatively small foreign-born populations, according to the center.
        • The Midwest is a "high-growth" region for undocumented immigrants, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.
        Illegal immigration produces a host of social problems. Undocumented aliens make up a significantly disproportionate percentage of our state prison population - nearly 6 percent of the prison population compared with less than 2 percent of the state's total population, according to Pawlenty's report. If the governor's critics are right that his estimate of illegal immigrants in Minnesota is too high, the disproportion is even greater.
        Unlawful immigrants also add to the cost of public education. They often lack health insurance, and tend to use costly emergency room services. Undocumented immigrants themselves are a highly vulnerable population. They are easily exploited by unscrupulous employers and criminals, since they generally fear approaching civil authorities.
        Is it racist to be concerned about such matters? A large majority of Hispanics in America don't think so. Sixty-one percent of U.S. Hispanics questioned in a recent Time magazine poll said that illegal immigration is either an "extremely" or "very serious" problem. In a recent survey by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, 53 percent of Hispanics questioned said they would be more likely to support a Democratic candidate who "supports stricter controls on immigration because the current level of immigration threatens American workers and our national security." A Pew Hispanic Center survey found that 60 percent of U.S.-born Latinos approve restricting driver's licenses to U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.

•   •   •  

Farmworkers Reap Little as Union Strays From Its Roots   [1/08/06]
It's sad to see the UFW devolve into an ATM for the handful of people who run it, namely the family of the late labor leader Cesar Chavez. Revisionist Chicanos have turned Cesar into a hero of the Aztlan revanchist movement, but nothing could be further from the truth. He objected strongly to illegal immigration because he correctly understood that it could destroy his movement of gaining fair wages for farmworkers, back in the time when the majority of farmworkers were not illegal aliens.

    Thirty-five years after Chavez riveted the nation, the strikes and fasts are just history, the organizers who packed jails and prayed over produce in supermarket aisles are gone, their righteous pleas reduced to plaintive laments.
        What remains is the name, the eagle and the trademark chant of "Sí se puede" ("Yes, it can be done") — a slogan that rings hollow as UFW leaders make excuses for their failure to organize California farmworkers.
        Today, a Times investigation has found, Chavez's heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money.
        The money does little to improve the lives of California farmworkers, who still struggle with the most basic health and housing needs and try to get by on seasonal, minimum-wage jobs.
        Most of the funds go to burnish the Chavez image and expand the family business, a multimillion-dollar enterprise with an annual payroll of $12 million that includes a dozen Chavez relatives.

•   •   •  

Hype, hysteria and immigration   [1/07/06]
The Washington Times editorializes about the shrieks emanating from open-borders enthusiasts. Naturally, the usual suspects are raising a howl about non-existent horrors in the Sensenbrenner bill.

    The New York Times published a news story on the subject last week that read like a brief for the pro-legalization side. "Churches, social service agencies and immigration groups," the Times reported, are rallying in opposition to H.R. 4437, the immigration reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives last month, thanks in large part to the efforts of Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican.
        The Times warned darkly that the bill "would broaden the nation's immigrant-smuggling law so that people who assist or shield illegal immigrants would be subject to prosecution. Offenders, who might include priests, nurses or social workers, could face up to five years in prison. The proposal would also allow the authorities to seize some assets of those convicted of such a crime." Moreover, the bill "could also subject the spouses and colleagues of illegal workers to prosecution."
        The Times piece also quoted a representative of the Conference of Catholic Bishops warning that the legislation "would place parish, diocesan and social service program staff at risk of criminal prosecution simply for performing their jobs."
    But as the Times points out, there is no such provision in the bill. When it comes to keeping its immigration gravy train, the Catholic Church does not tell the truth.

•   •   •  

Schwarzenegger may be putting himself into a political pitfall   [1/06/06]
Dan Walters is one of the most astute commentators about California politics, and he believes the governor's overreaching proposals for expensive infrastructure investment will enable the Democratic legislature to demand its pound of flesh in return for cooperation. (Read yesterday's State of the State address.)

    It's more than likely that Democratic legislators and their myriad interest groups - labor unions, personal injury attorneys, etc. - will seize on the infrastructure package as leverage, demanding that Schwarzenegger give ground on such issues as an increase in the minimum wage, modification of his much-vaunted workers' compensation reforms, or perhaps driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, and adopt softer administrative attitudes on such issues as new contracts for state worker unions.
    Apparently the governor didn't read the recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California which found that a majority believed continued population growth is a negative.
    The survey's focus on population is not an abstract concern: Demographers predict that the state's population is likely to increase from 37 million now to 46 million by 2025 -- and the majority of those surveyed (55 percent) say this is a "bad thing."

•   •   •  

Bush names immigration chief: He bypasses Senate; some see cronyism   [1/06/06]
Bush's newfound tough talk about border enforcement is belied by his terrible choice of an unqualified 36-year-old lawyer to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department.

    Bush's recess appointment of Julie Myers earlier this week was an end run around the Senate, where her nomination to lead the huge, troubled immigration and customs operation had been stalled.
        "It's disappointing," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing 9,000 Border Patrol employees.
        "This is further evidence of this administration's lack of commitment to meaningfully addressing the illegal immigration crisis," he said. "It is just blatant cronyism, and I am sure she is a bright and talented young woman, but this is not the place to put someone with such a steep learning curve."
        Myers worked for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as his chief of staff when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. Her husband, John Wood, is Chertoff's chief of staff at the Homeland Security Department, and her uncle is Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    More details at "Critics call Myers unfit for immigration post".

•   •   •  

Mexico's leader launched many reforms in his presidency, but voters expected more   [1/05/06]
This article is really a puff piece glorifying el Presidente Fox. Is it part of the public relations campaign the Mexican government has bought for tens of millions of dollars from the PR firm Allyn & Company? The author, S. Lynn Walker, is Copley's bureau chief in Mexico City and has received at least one award for writing about "diversity."
    There are factual mentions of Fox failures. But the emotional content is all positive.

    Five years ago, Mexicans voted for a savior. What they got was a man. A big, straight-taking, charismatic man. But a man nonetheless. His strengths have made him one of the most popular presidents in Mexican history. His weaknesses have prevented him from living up to the expectations of millions of people who believed he could radically change their country.
        Vicente Fox's sheer force of character gave Mexicans the courage to wrench power from a regime that had governed them for 71 years. But as Fox begins his final year in office, his critics say he has squandered a unique opportunity to use the power voters placed in his hands.
        Fox's critics say he has been unable -- or unwilling -- to negotiate with a sharply divided Congress to win the energy, labor and financial reforms Mexico needs to strengthen its economy and compete in the global market.

•   •   •  

Diversity Is Strength! It's Also... Cruelty To Animals   [1/05/06]
Here is my recent article in www.Vdare.com.

    When a kitten gets stuck in a tree or a puppy becomes trapped in a hole in the ground, we expect the local fire department to save them, and they do. Photos of big strong firemen with tiny rescued kittens bring appreciative smiles from all but the worst grouch. Furthermore, every city has breed-specific dog rescue groups that place homeless animals from akitas to shelties.
        But in many non-western cultures, animals endure brutality that Americans can hardly imagine. Animals are despised. Gratuitous cruelty is the norm.

•   •   •  

French Riviera gang terrorises passengers in two-hour train rampage   [1/05/06]
Apparently Muslim gang-bangers do trains as well as automobiles.

    Hundreds of passengers were terrorised by a mob of youths rampaging through a train on the French Riviera.
        One young woman was sexually assaulted, travellers were robbed of phones and cash, and carriages were wrecked in the two-hour assault, it emerged yesterday.
        Up to 40 youths involved in the attacks had taken advantage of a special fare of about 80p to travel from Marseilles and Avignon to celebrate the New Year in Nice. [...]
        "It was a real scene of pillage on the train," the regional prosecutor, Dominique Luiggi, said yesterday as details emerged. "Passengers were in a state of panic."
        One witness said there had already been assaults and threats, including other indecent attacks on young women, on Saturday's outward journey.
        He said the robbers were of Arab origin and had boasted about their plans to cause more trouble on the train.
        President Jacques Chirac promised yesterday to bring the gang to justice. He said those responsible would be "found and punished".
        France's Le Parisien newspaper likened the youths to the gang in the film Clockwork Orange.
    Another story here.

•   •   •  

Fatal shooting of Mexican by agent at border probed   [1/04/06]
Details of the man's death sound like a probe of the hospital would be more appropriate than examining the Border Patrol. The Mexican was strong enough to make his way to medical care, check himself in for treatment, yet was dead four hours later. That is odd.

    The shooting victim has been identified by Mexican officials as Guillermo Martinez Rodriguez, an 18-year-old who checked himself into a Tijuana, Mexico, hospital after the incident but died four hours later. He reportedly was struck by a single gunshot to the back of his right shoulder.
    Another report showed that the deceased was a known alien smuggler who had been detained 11 times previous. The family is already exploring a wrongful death suit (with the help of the Mexican government, naturally) which will presumably be filed against the US Border Patrol, not the hospital.

•   •   •  

Station jilts young fans, saying rock didn't pay   [1/04/06]
San Jose California radio station KCNL-FM (104.9) has changed its format from rock music to Spanish-language programming, the second such switch within a year. San Jose is now over 30 percent hispanic.

    Without much warning, even to its own staff, Clear Channel radio dropped the rock format at its second Bay Area station in a year, replacing it with adult contemporary music in Spanish, including Shakira, Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel and Jaguares.
        KCNL-FM (104.9), which played music geared toward a young English-speaking audience and had promoted alternative concerts and events around San Jose, went Spanish on New Year's Day.
        The station's listeners, according to a representative from the San Antonio-based Clear Channel, were thought to be too young to attract profitable advertising. It is a notable shift from recent format changes in music programming, which focused on stations whose listeners were thought to be too old.
        Channel 104.9 is the second major San Jose rock station -- KSJO-FM (92.3) was the first -- that has switched to the Spanish music format in the past 14 months. Now, there are six top-25 rated Spanish stations in San Jose.

•   •   •  

New Beginning in U.S. Comes at Agonizing Cost   [1/03/06]
Somali Bantu refugee families are being split apart by heartless U.S. government officials — oh, the cruelty when some family members are left behind in Africa! But when you read deep into the article, the facts show a different picture.

    Part of the Bantus' problem appears to be self-inflicted. The resettlement program has been disrupted by a power struggle between two Bantu factions.
        The factions accuse each other of demanding bribes and selling slots in the resettlement program. And each side has attempted to torpedo the other's chances for relocation.
        "About a year ago, we started getting all these letters saying this person is not related to that person, this child is not the son of that man," said Gilbert Peters Ngetich, assistant manager of the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, office in Kakuma. "It's been hard for us to figure out. We didn't want to get into community politics."
        "The whole resettlement program has been turned into a battlefield, a power struggle by those with ill feelings toward one another," said Abdullahi Ali Ahmed, 29, secretary-general of one of the Bantu factions.
    What lovely people! Don't we all want neighbors like these?

•   •   •  

Philadelphia Mummers Parade Is 10,000 Strong   [1/02/06]
Here's an immigrant tradition you don't hear about much. Mummers! Who knew?

    According to a history of the parade from the sponsoring New Year's Shooters and Mummers Assn., it began with the custom of immigrants going door to door on New Year's Day and dancing while reciting rhymes such as,
    "Here we stand before your door
    As we stood the year before
    Give us whiskey; give us gin
    Open the door and let us in."

•   •   •  

Plucked From Africa, but Still Isolated in Their Classes   [1/02/06]
Perhaps it was a mistake to "pluck" thousands of tribal Somalis from their homeland and inject them into 21st century America. What is the point of bringing people to this country who will never become self-supporting in their lifetimes?
    This story is a small sample of the failure of do-gooder U.S. refugee policy, which only serves to keep service-providers employed. In earlier times, there were no translators for foreign children in classrooms, and immigrant kids had to pick up the language as they could.

    IDIRIS MAOW, 14, an eighth grader at Forest Park Middle School, is a refugee from Somalia who arrived here with his family in 2003. He is in his second year in an English language immersion class, yet can barely speak or understand English and cannot read it. Asked in English how long he had been at Forest Park, he could not answer.
        His teacher, Andrew Soucie, works hard with Idiris, but without a Somali translator to clarify lessons, he said, there is little progress. "It's a disaster," Mr. Soucie said. "Idiris should be getting clarification every day in his native tongue. I try to help him, but we can't communicate, and I'm never sure what he's thinking." Mr. Soucie said he asked his supervisors for translation help but "can't get a straight answer."

•   •   •  

SAN FRANCISCO: Tenderloin turning into new Latino neighborhood   [1/02/06]
Is San Franciso becoming the Los Angeles of northern California, namely another Mexican city?

    The changing face of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood can be seen at St. Boniface Catholic Church, where 500 families typically flock to the Spanish-language Mass each Sunday morning.
        While the parish in past years has had a majority of Vietnamese families, their numbers are being eclipsed by Latino parishioners, many of them new arrivals from Mexico and Central America, according to Sister Elisa Ruiz, a Franciscan nun who works at the church. The Latino presence in the parish is a reflection of the growing number of Latinos in the neighborhood, which is estimated at between 16 percent and 20 percent of Tenderloin residents, or close to 5,000 people, a jump of 80 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to census data.
        On the nights leading up to Christmas, hundreds of Latin American immigrants tromped through the rain-slick Tenderloin streets enacting a traditional Mexican posada. The parishioners carried statues depicting Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem and ritually knocked on doors, singing "In the name of God, I ask you for shelter. My wife is so tired, can we get a place to pass the night?"
        After being repeatedly turned away and told "there's no room at the inn," the procession arrived at the Golden Gate Avenue church, where all were welcomed with hot drinks, tamales and a pinata for the children.
        "They sing so loudly," Sister Ruiz said. "They really identify themselves with Jose and Maria, the idea of being immigrants in a land that's not your own."
        "She was the mother of God, and she didn't have a place," just as many of these immigrants struggle to find shelter and a sense of belonging.
    Mexicans identify with Joseph and Mary because the Catholic Church teaches them to believe so.

•   •   •  

Team rescues women from forced marriages   [1/01/06]
British diplomats save ethnic Pakistani women from marriage slavery.

    Every year, hundreds of young Western women return to their parents' homeland in Pakistan for a vacation that starts innocently and ends in the ordeal of forced marriage. Most victims come from Britain, which has a long history of immigration from Pakistan, with a few more from northern Europe and a handful from the United States.
        Typically, the woman, usually between 18 and 24, visits her cousins for a summer break, to see an ailing relative or to celebrate a cousin's wedding. But as weeks stretch into months, her passport "goes missing," and her return flight is canceled. Mysterious suitors appear on her relatives' doorstep. There is excited talk of marriage.
        A sour truth dawns on the woman: The only wedding being planned is her own.
        There seems to be no escape. Women cannot move about easily in small-town Pakistan, and male cousins watch her every movement.
        But there is one hope for the victims. British diplomats in Pakistan, faced with a flood of forced marriages, have formed a diplomatic team to rescue the unwilling brides from their country cousins and whisk them to safety.

•   •   •  

Youths burn cars in scattered New Year's Eve unrest in France   [1/01/06]
New Years was considered a great success in France since only a few hundred autos were torched by grouchy "youth" (aka young Muslims). As this article notes, the new multicultural New Years now includes car burnings as part of the festivities.
    Still, lame duck Chirac mouths the usual platitudes of celebrating diversity.

    Youths threw stones at firefighters and burned cars in scattered unrest during New Year's Eve celebrations in France, where police were mobilized to prevent a repeat outburst of rioting that broke out this fall.
        About 25,000 French police were on alert for the holiday. Every New Year's Eve, youths set several hundred cars ablaze as festivities get out of hand.
        Police were especially cautious this time because of the wave of rioting and car-torchings that broke out for three weeks starting in late October. A state of emergency imposed during the rioting is still in effect.
        In a pre-dawn tally Sunday, the Interior Ministry reported 249 vehicles burned throughout the country, including 84 in the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris. Police took 121 people into custody throughout France. [...]
        President Jacques Chirac spoke of the unrest during his annual New Year's Eve television address and urged the French to do more to fight racism and a lack of opportunities in poor neighborhoods - problems that fed frustrations among young rioters.
        "Diversity is part of our history: It is a resource," he said. "It is an asset for our future."

•   •   •  

Alito, In and Out of the Mainstream   [1/01/06]
Apparently Judge Alito is very much in the mainstream of American opinion regarding his immigration views.

    During 15 years as an appeals court judge, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. has been highly sympathetic to prosecutors, skeptical of immigrants trying to avoid deportation, and supportive of a lower wall between church and state, according to an analysis of his record by The Washington Post.
        Alito has taken a harder line on criminal and immigration cases than most federal appellate judges nationwide, including those who, like him, were selected by Republican presidents, the analysis found.

•   •   •  

363,584,435: Population 2030   [1/01/06]
This is the title for today's opinion section of the Washington Post which provides six articles discussing America's explosive population growth in 25 years when the number of residents will have risen by 23 percent. The page is a welcome opening to long-overdue debate regarding the government immigration policies which have resulted in skyrocketing population.
    That said, the topics are not the most edifying (particularly the silly piece about music and race relations); plus there is no mention of the immigration cause. Yes, urban planning needs more attention and the aging of America should be considered on balance in terms of opportunities as well as healthcare challenges.
    The problem of growing pavement area is briefly addressed in terms of traffic congestion but the correllary of disappearing farmland is not. By 2030, America will likely not be a food exporter as it is today but will be a food-importing nation, when food supply will become a national security issue.
    Only one item is genuinely environmental, namely shrinking natural resources with correct emphasis on water supply.
    We can hope the Post will hear appropriate criticism for ignoring the cause of America's explosive population growth and the failure to address the resulting issues with any seriousness.

•   •   •  

Local Hmong Petition for Help   [1/01/06]
Reports of bad treatment of Hmong in Laos have had the expected result — demands from Hmong living in the U.S. that their people be brought here.

    The Hmong people gathered in Green Bay are signing a petition that'll be sent to leaders in Congress and the United Nations. The petition asks for the U.S. to put pressure on the Thai and Laotian governments to treat the Hmong better, or let them come to America.

•   •   •  

 

© 2005 Brenda Walker All rights reserved.