July 2005
 
Italy bans Islamic burqas   [7/31/05]
Is Europe finally waking up to the danger within? Burqas can hide a lot of explosives, and this measure is common sense winning out over political correctness.

ITALY has banned Islamic burqas under tough terrorism laws that provide two-year jail terms and E2000 ($3200) fines for anyone caught covering their face in a public place.
    The counter-terrorism package, passed by Italy's parliament yesterday, doubles the existing penalty for wearing a burqa or chador -- traditional robes worn by Muslim women to cover their faces -- or full-faced helmets or balaclavas in public.

•   •   •  

Polygamy and Terrorism   [7/31/05]
William Tucker makes some cogent arguments about how polygamy creates a whole class of men at loose ends, who are likely recruits for jihadist enterprises. In addition, the man who has no female partner in life is promised 72 virgins in Allah's paradise if he dies in jihad. How convenient.

The absence of a norm of a "man for every woman, a woman for every man" also creates an entirely different male psychology. At one extreme, men consider their own lives to be worthless and expendable because they will not have the chance to reproduce. At the other extreme, they are promised "72 virgins in heaven." Sometimes the extremes converge.
    Polygamy creates dysfunctional societies. Jihad, with its perpetual social unrest, is unlikely to disappear until it is eliminated. I would suggest the United States propose a "right to reproduce" be added to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN would be the perfect place to initiate a global debate.

•   •   •  

A British Jihadist   [7/31/05]
Hassan Butt has an easily remembered name and was formerly a spokeman for the extremist al-Muhajiroun group of Manchester. He claims "he'd like to martyr himself in Britain for the sake of Islam," but so far he seems more interested in lolling in media attention and getting his face on the cover of infidel magazines. (Here's more Hassan in 2004: "I want to be a martyr says activist.")
    Martyrdom is so permanent: that's for the little people.
    But despite the obvious hypocrisy, Hassan has a clearly enunciated jihadist view of what the world will look like if the headchoppers get their way.

Taseer: So given the situation in the world today, what is the duty of the Muslim?
    Butt: Every Muslim must work for the Shari'a to be implemented as a political way of life. They can do that physically, by involving themselves in revolutionary coups, or through political means. As long as they don't attack or compromise other Muslims who are doing something different from them, I have no problem with any of these ways of establishing the Shari'a.
    Taseer: Is it going to be possible for Muslims to live alongside non-Muslims?
    Butt: We did it in the past, why can't we do it now?
    Taseer: Would it have to be a Muslim polity?
    Butt: Yes.

•   •   •  

US shuts Mexican border consulate   [7/30/05]
The violence in Nuevo Laredo has worsened, as the Gulf and Juarez cartels continue to battle over drug routes into the United States. Residents refer to the city as "East Baghdad" because of the heavy-duty firepower now being used.

The US is temporarily closing down its consulate in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo following several months of violence there.
    Bazookas, grenades and machine guns are said to have been used in recent clashes between rival drug cartels.
    They seek to control key smuggling routes across the US border.
    The US State Department had warned its citizens earlier this year not to travel to the violence-stricken city, known for its crime and kidnappings.

•   •   •  

CAIR Founded by "Islamic Terrorists"?   [7/29/05]
"CAIR" is the Council for American Islamic Relations, a group which masquerades as a civil rights organization for Muslims living in the United States. Daniel Pipes does a nice update of their lawsuit against Anti-CAIR, noting the recent drastic reduction of accusations against Anti-CAIR's Andrew Whitehead.

It might have to do with Whitehead, admirably represented by Reed Rubinstein of Greenberg Traurig LLP, having responded to CAIR's lawsuit with an extensive and well informed set of discovery requests and documents. These filings perhaps established for CAIR the depth of Whitehead's knowledge and the soundness of his opinions. If so, then CAIR's leadership concluded that the bulk of its case against Whitehead would collapse in court.
    CAIR's filing an amended motion has two apparent implications: that CAIR has tacitly acknowledges the truth of Whitehead's deleted assertions; and those assertions can now be repeated with legal impunity.

•   •   •  

The American Islamic Leaders' "Fatwa" is Bogus   [7/29/05]
There has been a lot of positive press about the recent Muslim "fatwa against terrorism," as most media outlets accept the ruling at face value. But the carefully worded statement does not renounce the goals or beliefs of Islamic extremism, according to terrorism expert Steve Emerson:

In fact, the fatwa is bogus. Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to Al-Qaeda.

•   •   •  

Pastor's 'battle' with witchcraft   [7/28/05]
A Pentecostal minister preaching in northeast London faces challenges unimaginable in a less diverse group of parishioners:

The congregation that I preach to is a small, multi-ethnic one.
    It is roughly one-third African, one-third Caribbean and the remaining third are English.
    A few weeks ago a Jamaican boy was brought to me by a friend.
    He told me that three years ago he had been enticed into witchcraft by a coven of witches, older than himself that he had met at school.
    He described to me how he would leave his body at night and travel to different places.

•   •   •  

In 1959, the vision for the Bay Area was a place of filled marshes, flattened hills and houses galore   [7/28/05]
A history of dumb ideas would be a thick book indeed, and the plan to fill in San Francisco Bay to provide more land for housing would have merited special recognition. In the 1950's when growth was unquestioned, the Army Corp of Engineers produced a report showing how much of the Bay could be "reclaimed." The Engineers' map of area to be filled caused many a jaw to drop, and some local people reacted by organizing to protect the area's natural resources.

When the Oakland Tribune ran a version of the Army Corps' map, it caught the eye of people already concerned by what was happening around them, including Berkeley residents Kay Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, who in 1961 formed the group now known as Save the Bay.

•   •   •  

Immigration and American Identity: An Open Letter to Tamar Jacoby   [7/28/05]
Tamar Jacoby is the Energizer Bunny of open-borders advocates, and she appears often as the author of Reinventing the Melting Pot. Her arguments are of the smile and make-believe variety: immigrants are assimilating just like a century ago, schools are not overwhelmed, newcomers all "want to learn English," they are doing "jobs Americans don't want," etc. blah blah.
    Such blather may be reassuring to the uninformed, but it's all lies or tricky phrasing. Like the "want to learn English" fantasy — a meaningless phrase if ever one existed. A person might "want to exercise daily" but that noble aspiration has no relation to actual behavior.
    John Fonte's "Dear Tamar" letter rightly thwacks her concerning the loss of patriotic assimilation because of multicultural nonsense.

In the same vein you attack what you describe as the "coercive" assimilation policies of the 1920s and 1950s. It is significant, however, that those very policies led to a thoroughly Americanized "greatest generation" in World War II. That meant, for example, that some of my Italian-American relatives fought against Italian soldiers in North Africa and Sicily. It is not clear where Eddie Liu would stand in a war in which Americans fought Chinese (not an implausible scenario), but it is clear that your policy prescriptions ("Eddie Liu doesn't have to choose") are, to put it mildly, inadequate to infuse national loyalty in newcomers.

•   •   •  

Husband beats wife to death for defying 'orders'   [7/27/05]
A woman is murdered in Abu Dhabi for looking out the window, against her husband's "orders." Such is the nature of Islamic family values as they pertain to women.

The man, a hairdresser, was returning home from his shop at around 10.30pm, when he saw his second wife, also Syrian, looking out of the balcony of his flat on the first floor.
    He got angry, rushed to his flat and started beating her all over her body.
    The woman's screams forced his first wife who lives in the same flat, out of bed and she tried to stop him. However, he overpowered her and continued beating his second wife up for half an hour until she fainted.
    The 30-year-old man called an ambulance but paramedics found his wife dead.
    The accused told police he had not meant to kill her.
    "I just wanted to discipline her after she disobeyed my orders. She died while I was hitting her for daring to look out of the balcony," he is said to have told interrogators.
    "I used to beat my wives but I never thought that beating would kill any of them. It was just my way of disciplining them," he said.

•   •   •  

Jihad Is a Rich Boy's Game   [7/27/05]
Here is an interesting refutation of the Marxist view that economically bereft Muslims are behind the rise of violent Islamic fascism.

When you read reports that the Muslim terrorists who bombed the London Underground may have gotten together for a pre-attack white-water rafting trip in Wales, you realize that this is a very particular enemy -- and one that is recognizable to students of history.
    This is the revolt of the privileged, Islamic version. They have risen so far, so fast in the dizzying culture of the West that they have become enraged, disoriented and vulnerable to manipulation. Their spiritual leader is the son of a Saudi billionaire, who grew up with big ideas and too much money.
    Reading some of the London bombers' biographies, you realize the depth of their cultural confusion: "Shahzad Tanweer, 23, came from one of Beeston's most respected families," wrote the London Independent about one July 7 bomber. And according to The Washington Post, he had just received a red Mercedes from his dad.
    People who were students in U.S. in the 1960s will remember the phenomenon: The kids from elite public and private schools who went to college, felt guilty about their comfort amid a brutal world, and joined the Progressive Labor Party to ally with oppressed Third World workers. There is a cult aspect to this jihad -- an extreme version of the logic that has always drawn disaffected kids to self-destructive behavior.
    Take a tour of some of the jihadist Web sites and you'll see a fantasy world -- in which angry, alienated Muslims are stewing in scenarios of revenge. Young Muslims can buy videos of Iraqi insurgents setting off roadside bombs and firing mortars.

•   •   •  

Study: California will need 40 percent more water in 25 years   [7/27/05]
Population growth with the subsequent water use is regarded as a force of nature rather than a Washington-designed mandate in the latest report. No surprise, since the study is from the politically correct Public Policy Institute of California, which has never spoken a critical word about America's immigration-fueled population explosion. (Download a PDF of the paper from this page.)

The nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California plotted future use from current water consumption, population growth estimates and demographic projections in the study released Wednesday. Fourteen million more people will each be using 232 gallons each day by 2030, at the current pace.

•   •   •  

Life for van Gogh killer fails to ease Dutch fears   [7/27/05]
The sentencing of Mohamed Bouyeri for the murder of Theo Van Gogh settled one source of tension in the Netherlands, but the larger picture is the growing recognition of the new normal, where the delusions of multiculturalism have been blown away.

Khalil el-Yobari, 30, a shopkeeper, echoed the sergeant's defence of the Netherlands as a place to build a peaceful life. But he felt there had been a big change for Muslims. "People don't talk to us in the street any more," he said.
    His friends yearned to attack Israel or America, he said matter-of-factly, but he condemned terrorism in Europe. He combined praise for the Netherlands with nostalgia for the good life he felt ended with September 11.
    "Before that attack, Amsterdam was OK," he said. "Now it is very difficult to find a job as a Moroccan, even with school diplomas."
    He condemned Bouyeri's crime, saying that Mr van Gogh had had every right to say what he liked without being attacked. "It's a free country," he said.
    But he reported bitter debate among his friends about the case and gave warning that the case had added to Muslim anger about racism at home, as well as the situation in Iraq and the Middle East.
    "Dutch people hate Muslims," he said. "One survey said 56 per cent say that. We all feel we are in prison now. I have friends who tell me they want to fight."
    He rejected London-style attacks in Holland because innocent people had been killed. But, without any evident pleasure at the thought, he predicted that home-grown terrorism would hit the Netherlands.
    "It is going to happen - and it will be from people like me," he said.

•   •   •  

Dutch Filmmaker's Killer Gets Life Sentence   [7/26/05]
This is the closest to justice one gets in the Netherlands, since there is no death sentence for even first degree murder. For that reason, the sentence of Mohammed Bouyeri for the deliberate murder of writer Theo Van Gogh on Nov. 2, 2004, is good news and shows that the Dutch elites may finally realize that terrorists must be punished to the extent the law allows. Good for them.
    Remember that Volkert van der Graaf, the assassin of Pim Fortuyn, got a rap across the knuckles and will walk free in just a few years.
    PeakTalk has some nice remembrances of the victim.

•   •   •  

$41 Billion Cost Projected To Remove Illegal Entrants   [7/26/05]
Clearly the report from a liberal think tank is an attempt to show that it would be too expensive to repatriate the 12-20 million foreigners residing in the United States. In fact, the Center for American Progress states its agenda in that regard.

This paper helps illustrate the false allure of deportation as a response to our broken immigration system. Our nation needs comprehensive immigration reform, not unrealistic and costly ideas that drain the Treasury with no benefit to our security. [Read the original report in PDF]

•   •   •  

The rise of a jihadi suicide culture   [7/25/05]
What kind of mass insanity has taken root when many young Muslm males are so in love with death that they will blow themselves up in order to kill innocents? And now the momentum is on the rise.

What concerns counterterrorism experts is that tactics that once prompted fierce ideological debates within radical circles - suicide and attacks on civilians are both classically defined in Islam as sins - are now more likely to be embraced by young men. A decade or two ago, Muslim males might have been willing to take up a rifle and risk death fighting against the Soviets in the mountains of Afghanistan, but many would have balked at making the ultimate sacrifice or at blowing up civilians in a Moscow train station. [...]
    The tactical logic of the suicide bomber hasn't changed: He's difficult to stop, and equalizes the power differential between the militarily weak and the strong. But it appears, say some analysts, to have developed a momentum of its own. As it has become more common among the circles of supporters of the global jihad, taboos have been broken down creating a greater willingness among young men to take their own lives, which in turn feeds the cycle.

•   •   •  

Health officials battle unwanted immigrant: TB   [7/24/05]
Like many institutions, public health is too encumbered by political correctness to demand what's needed to protect citizens from introducing third-world diseases: border enforcement. Instead of calling for reasonable prevention, "health officials urged calm and understanding." Germs don't respond to "understanding."

Although TB has been declining for more than a decade in the United States, experts worry about how entrenched it remains in some immigrant enclaves. They worry, especially, about a small but stubborn share of cases -- 1 percent to 2 percent in California -- that are resistant to standard antibiotics.
    A study last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that foreign-born residents accounted for 8 in 10 cases in California that were resistant to multiple drugs. [...]
    "Just because somebody has TB doesn't mean they're a bad person," said Dr. Alan Kurz, a Los Angeles County Department of Health Services medical director. "People with TB contribute to the workplace and churches and social organizations like everybody else. They are valuable people in our society. And this is an illness that can be treated."

•   •   •  

In the open: rapists' campaign of vicious assaults   [7/24/05]
The brutal effects on women of importing misogynous cultures through immigration have been particularly evident in Australia, where depraved Muslim gang rapists have preyed upon young Australian girls. The thugs are brothers who came from Pakistan in 2000, and the details of their crimes are now coming to light.

They are probably the most violent, prolific gang rapists Sydney has known, with as many as 18 young victims. But until now the extent of the horrific crimes of four brothers from Pakistan has been kept secret.
    Yesterday, more than three years after they went on a six-month rampage, luring girls as young as 13 to their home in Ashfield to rape them, suppression orders forbidding publication of their trial details were lifted.

•   •   •  

A Crescent over Europe?   [7/23/05]
The political changes brought about through Muslim immigration are considered. America's long-standing alliance, based on ties of culture and shared values, may end as Europe devolves into Eurabia.

However, this Atlantic partnership might not survive a radical change in Europe's basic nature. Few ever believed such a thing could happen, but, within the next several decades, Europe could well undergo such a change. The Continent's restive Islamic minority is poised to grow in numbers and hence political power, and it is overwhelmingly anti-American.
    Incredible as it might seem, some experts predict that Europe will have an Islamic majority sometime well before the end of this century. Thus, the US may at some point look across the Atlantic and see not the familiar, nominally Christian, and largely secular partner it has known for many decades but something else entirely: an Islamic Europe.
    Historian Niall Ferguson of New York University notes, "The whole of Western Europe is entering a new era of demographic transformation without parallel in modern times."

•   •   •  

One nation, one culture   [7/22/05]
From Australia, former treasury secretary and National Party senator John Stone states that multiculturalist policies have been damaging to his nation and others:

The Blair Government's intervention in Iraq is not to blame. Rather, successive British governments have persisted in the multiculturalist folly that a nation can be built on separate but equal cultures. Moreover, under Tony Blair in particular, Britain's immigration policies and border controls against illegal immigrants have become international jokes, and now a national tragedy.

•   •   •  

Hmong doctor bridges culture gap   [7/22/05]
Diversity in medicine is a growing sub-topic for the media these days, as they dig up curiosities of other people's beliefs for our edification and amusement. The Horatio Alger myth gets recycled in the story about a Hmong man who overcame great obstacles to become an MD in America. Dr. Xiong has further taken it upon himself to educate his western colleagues about odd Hmong beliefs that relate to medicine.

Doctors also need to be sensitive to Hmong patients when blood tests are performed.
    "The Hmong believe that when you drain the blood there is no replenishment," Xiong said.
    Additionally, Xiong knows better than to ever compliment a Hmong baby, no matter how adorable or cute the child is. The Hmong believe that babies are born with multiple life souls that can become easily separated from their bodies. Predatory dabs, or evil spirits, they believe, have been known to steal souls and make babies sick. So the Hmong are careful not to call attention to their babies.

•   •   •  

Western Terrorists Have Roots in Earlier Colonialism   [7/22/05]
Georgie Anne Geyer takes on multiculturalism in this curiously titled column. Europeans were hopelessly naive and not paying attention when they welcomed the new influx of immigrants from Muslim cultures starting in the 1960s, she believes.

Their arguments were oh-so-chock-full of humanness! The multiculturalists, who came to dominate Anglo universities on both sides of the Atlantic, believed that there were no differences between men. Essentially, they denied culture and memory. Man was a cipher, a creature who could be won over by goodness and live happily ever after. And why not right there in England itself? [...]
    European countries are now clamoring for immigrants to be assimilated. It's too late, and it's their own fault. They were blase about the realities of human nature and the profundities of human culture when they let so many from clearly antithetical societies enter on their own terms. The Europeans never even asked anything of the immigrants: not personal respect, not reverence for the new country, not promises to fulfill the duties of citizenship.

•   •   •  

London blasts cause chaos on Tube   [7/21/05]
The fruits of unwise multicultural immigration are evident in the second round of explosions in Britain, these fortunately being far less deadly than the 7/7 ones. Interestingly, one of London's best known terrorists, Omar Bakri, warned just yesterday of more attacks to come.
    The British response to Islamic terror generally has been less than robust in the opinion of columnist Arnold Beichman. However, another article reports positively about Blair's attempt to engage Islam to confront the decay within.
    Fouad Ajami is less hopeful about the idea that Islam is capable of its own reformation ["Within the Gates"]:

It would have been nice to think that in the new lands of the West, a more tolerant version of Islam might have taken root. Instead, a neurotic zealotry has made its appearance. In Scotland the leaders of the industrialized world had assembled to discuss disease and poverty. Then a more deadly animus struck, reminding all of us of more atavistic furies still on the loose.

•   •   •  

Police shot dead in Mexican city   [7/21/05]
Two police were recently murdered in Nuevo Laredo, bringing to five the number killed this week, and 10 murdered this year

Assailants ambushed the pair just two blocks from the police station and sprayed them with bullets around 3 p.m. Tuesday. The officers had just finished their shift, Mexico City's El Universal newspaper said.
    Drug-trade analysts say some officers are targeted because they refuse to take payoffs from gang members. Others take bribes from one gang and are murdered by rival traffickers. [...]
    Many residents have left town, fearing no end to the violence.

•   •   •  

"Fighting Immigration Anarchy" now available   [7/20/05]
LTG is very pleased to announce that a unique new book is now available. Your humble correspondent has been connected with this project from the beginning and can recommend it highly.
    Unlike many books about immigration which are filled with eye-glazing statistics to make their points, Fighting Immigration Anarchy focuses on American citizen-activists who have made a difference in the struggle to maintain borders and sovereignty. Many people who have seen the book have remarked about its similarity to JFK's Profiles in Courage.
    That said, the book is well researched, with the reference notes to prove it. But the theme is what determined people can do with limited resources to save the country.
    People familiar with the issue of immigration moderation will recognize the names of the activists profiled: Terry Anderson, Roy Beck, Barbara Coe, Joe Guzzardi, Glenn Spencer, and Rep. Tom Tancredo. Their struggles are the backbone of the book, with the need-to-know facts interwoven within the human stories.
    Author Dan Sheehy lives in Los Angeles and has experienced firsthand the unprecedented Mexicanization of that city. You can read an excerpt from the book describing how he saw the idyllic American community of his childhood turned into the capital of Aztlan.
    You can order the book through the website.

•   •   •  

Tancredo Defends Controversial Comments (file includes video of interview)   [7/20/05]
Rep. Tom Tancredo recently appeared on a radio program (audio file) where he responded to a hypothetical question about what to do if the United States were to be hit with a nuclear bomb with the suggestion that an Islamic holy site might be taken out in retaliation. The Council on American Islamic Relations, a major mouthpiece for the extreme Muslim agenda, swung into action immediately and demanded an apology.
    But Tancredo has hung tough. He appeared on Fox News and refused to back down:

But we are talking about a situation where our very lives are at stake — and not just the life of the United States, but of Western civilization. If, in fact, seven or eight nuclear devices were to go off this country, what do you think would happen to the world? I mean, there would be an economic implosion of major consequences. And to not even talk about the possibility of responding is crazy, I think.

•   •   •  

Hillary Clinton Draws Applause From Hispanics   [7/19/05]
Forget all the tough talk from Hillary about how the borders should be fortified: when she spoke to the convention of the National Council of La Raza ("The Race"), it was the same old open borders drivel that Democrats have been unsuccessfully peddling for years. (For Sen. Clinton's voting record on immigration, see BetterImmigration.com.)

Clinton touched on nearly every issue that was important to Hispanics, the nation's largest ethnic group and a crucial voting bloc. She said she wanted to make sure Hispanic children got a fair education, and that families had medical insurance to ward off health problems such as asthma and lead poisoning that affect kids. She also talked of supporting legislation that would make it easier for immigrants to send money back home, which Hispanics do at a rate of about $200 per month.

•   •   •  

Political Factions and A Modest Proposal for Dealing with Islam   [7/19/05]
Robert Klein Engler always has something interesting to say. In his latest there are common-sense, though politically incorrect, prescriptions for the Islamic terrorism problem: he recommends that Islam be isolated from the west. It's not an outrageous suggestion, since there are dozens of majority Islamic nations where Muslims can happily pursue their faith and culture.

A fence around Islam may include the removal of Muslims from Western societies, the outlawing of Islamic practices, cultural parity with Muslim states, new sources of oil, and the postponement of economic and technical development in the Muslim world until the military and cultural threat of Islam is diminished.
    Deportation of Muslims from Western societies is not a picture the liberal press wants to see, but it may be necessary to do this. With their reluctance to assimilate, more so in Europe than in the United States, Muslim ghettos are breeding grounds for terrorists. Given the threat the practice of Islam poses to the West, it is not wrong to see it as a dangerous faction. Today, the Federal Republic of Germany sees nothing wrong with making the practice of Nazism illegal, so, someday the same may be the case for Islam in some Western societies. [...]
    Under the U. S. Constitution, the oath our elected officials take is to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare. These elected officials should not worry more about Iraq or even Mexico than our own citizens. If our government does not want to build a fence around Islam now, then our citizens may have to do it later--perhaps after a dirty bomb brought up through Mexico explodes in Houston.

•   •   •  

Klaus says multiculturalism, immigration cause terrorism   [7/19/05]
That would be Czech President Vaclav Klaus in a recent interview.

He said that multiculturalism is a tragic mistake of western civilisation for which all will pay dearly. Such openness is not the direct cause of terror, but it is terrorism's fundamental cause, Klaus said. He compared multiculturalism to the role Marx's teaching played in the crimes of communism.
    He said at the same time that multiculturalism is not an explanation for the recent attacks in London. "Multiculturalism is an ideology that says that you should emigrate and to make claim to your civilisation, your group and ethnic interests" in the new countries, Klaus said.
    "Mass emigration has emerged as a false ideology according to which there exists a kind of claim, a general human right to wander anywhere around the world," Klaus said.
    He added that this suppresses the civil rights of the original inhabitants.

•   •   •  

In Latin America, rich-poor chasm stifles growth   [7/18/05]
Latin America, particularly Mexico, is way overdue for some serious political, economic and social reform. But that scenario appears unlikely as long as the United States allows energetic young people to escape north, where they are better off as exploited near-slaves than they would be at home in retro Mexico.

While researchers have in recent years described limits to class mobility in the U.S. and decried the growing wage gap among Americans, things are much worse just south of the border. The son of a blue-collar worker in Mexico has only a 10 percent chance of making the jump to a white-collar job, compared with a 30 percent chance in the U.S., according to a 2001 study by the Inter-American Development Bank.
    Because of an abundance of natural resources and a large indigenous population, Latin American nations grew up relying on raw materials, cheap manual labor to exploit them and low government taxation. The system concentrated land ownership and wealth in a few hands, deprived governments of money to spend on education and offered little incentive for the elite to invest in human capital or technology. Latin America has also historically relied on monopolies and franchises, leaving few opportunities for entrepreneurs to advance through hard work and innovation. The American dream never became the Latin American dream.
    Latin American culture tends to emphasize advancement through personal relationships rather than merit. Corporate executives and tortilla grinders alike hand their jobs down to the next generation in their families. Education gets less emphasis. Only a few years after its founding in the early 1600s, the Massachusetts Bay Colony made primary-school education mandatory. It took Brazil until the mid-1960s. Today, seven out of 10 Latin Americans drop out of high school, almost double the rate of industrialized nations and some Asian countries like South Korea.
    The lack of economic and social mobility in Latin America is one reason why the region has developed slowly. In 1980, Mexico's economy was nearly four times the size of South Korea's. Last week, the World Bank's ranking of the world's biggest economies placed South Korea 11th, one place ahead of Mexico.

•   •   •  

Europe's Enemy Within   [7/18/05]
The words out of Tony Blair's mouth sound strong, but Britain is holding a tiger by the ears, given how it has accepted the most outrageous behavior from extremist imams who have regularly preached jihad against the west:

The events of July 7 have once again shown that appeasement doesn't work and will never work. For too long, British governments and municipalities granted Islamic fanatics the freedom to preach Jihad in the streets of big cities, including London. By doing so, they believed they would keep them quiet and "moderate".[...]
    Despite statements like "We are not afraid," Blair and other European leaders keep showing the terrorists that their strategy works. On the final day of the G8 summit, and the day after the London bombings, Western leaders redoubled aid to the Palestinian Authority and did not even mention the threat posed by the Mullahs of Iran. Despite this appeasement, Palestinians celebrated the attacks and the Mullahs blamed them on the US, Israel and the UK itself and have even congratulated one another during sermons and prayer.

•   •   •  

Violence mars Bastille Day celebrations in France   [7/17/05]
Apparently there was substantial violence in Paris, but there was no reporting of it in the MSM, even after the London bombings. This story is from a Japanese paper.

PARIS — Violence that spilled over from France's Bastille Day celebrations saw about 200 cars set on fire, dozens detained and clashes between youths and security forces, police said Thursday.
    Most of the incidents happened in the greater Paris region Wednesday night as the French began festivities for the country's July 14 national holiday.
    Clashes between youths and police in the suburbs of Paris saw police use shoulder-held grenade launchers. One police officer was injured and taken to hospital.
    The door of a synagogue in Stains, a suburb north of Paris, was damaged by a Molotov cocktail.

•   •   •  

South Korea Blasted for Allowing Consumption of Dogs   [7/17/05]
Koreans traditionally eat dog meat on July 15 because they believe it will help them survive the summer heat. Not only are the animals eaten, but they are brutally killed in the process of slaughter because adrenaline is thought to make the meat more desirable. The occasion brought out protests against the practice.

[Kristie Phelps, program coordinator for In Defense of Animals] added: "Before dogs are killed for meat, they are often strung up by their legs and beaten. Dog butchers extol the virtues of their product, linking the adrenaline rush dogs experience as they are bludgeoned to death to enhanced male virility. Cats fare no better; viewed as pest animals, they are boiled alive so their 'juices' can be extracted for supposed health tonics, which butchers claim can be used to treat rheumatism."
    In January, the South Korean government said it would begin inspecting the meat for sanitation, as it does with livestock.
    Phelps said this gives the "beating, hanging, burning, electrocution and boiling alive of dogs and cats a government stamp of approval.
    "We understand it is a cultural tradition, but we are horrified by the fact that these animals are being tortured," she said.

•   •   •  

London bomber's uncle defends nephew's 'sacrifice'   [7/17/05]
More than 50 innocent people have been murdered in London, but to the uncle of the cold-blooded killer Shahzad Tanweer, it's the perps who are victims.

"These suicide bombers are desperate people," Bashir Ahmed told the Sunday Paper. "They are not getting their rights. They can see that their brothers are not getting their rights, so they take extreme action."
    "This lad has made a name for himself in the world. Muslims call it a sacrifice, the Europeans call him a terrorist," he was quoted as saying.

•   •   •  

Anger Burns on the Fringe of Britain's Muslims   [7/16/05]
It is noteworthy that the New York Times, which never speaks ill of any diversity, actually mentions the goal of radical Islam, namely the worldwide institution of sharia law. A number of British Muslims, members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir or Party of Liberation, support the return of the Caliphate, which was one of bin Laden's early demands from the West

The party's stated goal is to rebuild the Caliphate — the Muslim state dissolved with the fall of the Ottoman Empire — to displace corrupt dictators in the Muslim world, and to instill Islamic mores and Islamicize almost every aspect of daily life.
    The group has drawn about 10,000 members to its recent annual meetings, its members say, and includes chapters abroad in places like Uzbekistan. It is a controversial movement, even among British Muslims, and its members have become emblematic of the shift of Muslims born in Britain to more conservative and outspoken expressions of their faith.

•   •   •  

Tolerating a Time Bomb   [7/16/05]
The New York Times prints Dutch columnist Leon de Winter's brief history of the Netherlands' experiment with multicultural immigration and how it came into conflict with post-60's values. He rues the loss of Pim Fortuyn, assassinated in 2002, who might well have been the unconventional leader the country (and Europe) needed.

This mix of cultural confusion, religious misunderstanding and political correctness provided the stage on which Pim Fortuyn performed. In the international press, Mr. Fortuyn was often described as a right-wing radical, a label he loathed. He was a liberal with respect to personal freedom and a conservative with respect to social norms and values - that is, he was a classic tolerant Dutchman.
    Proud to be gay, he protested against the religiously based homophobia openly espoused in the Muslim ghettos. Yet he also emphasized the need for integrating Muslims into larger society and tolerance for their faith. His political incorrectness shocked the press and political establishment, but many among the traditional citizenry recognized Mr. Fortuyn as a kindred spirit.

•   •   •  

Facing hard facts   [7/15/05]
Columnist Diana West has been a strong voice pointing out the discrepancies between the new secular religion of multiculturalism and the real world. Most dangerous is how the belief that all cultures are morally equal prevents the recognition that Islam is a fascist political system, dedicated to destroying western civilization.

Only one faith on earth may be more messianic than Islam: multiculturalism. Without it — without its fanatics who believe all civilizations are the same — the engine that projects Islam into the unprotected heart of Western civilization would stall and fail. It's as simple as that. To live among the believers — the multiculturalists — is to watch the assault, the jihad, take place, unrepulsed by our suicidal societies. These societies are not doomed to submit; rather, they are eager to do so in the name of a masochistic brand of tolerance that, short of drastic measures, is surely terminal.
    I'm not talking about our soldiers, policemen, rescue workers and, now, even train conductors who bravely and steadfastly risk their lives for civilization abroad and at home. I'm instead thinking about who we are as a society at this somewhat advanced stage of war. It is a strange, tentative civilization we have become, with leaders who strut their promises of "no surrender" even as they flinch at identifying the foe. Four years past September 11, we continue to shadow-box "terror," even as we go on about "an ideology of hate." It's a script that smacks of sci-fi fantasy more than realpolitik. [...]
    In not discussing the roots of terror in Islam itself, in not learning about them, the multicultural clergy that shepherds our elites prevents us from having to do anything about them. This is key, because any serious action — stopping immigration from jihad-sponsoring nations, shutting down mosques that preach violence, expelling their imams, just for starters — means to renounce the multicultural creed. In the West, that's the greatest apostasy. And while the penalty is not death — as it is for leaving Islam under Islamic law — the existential crisis is to be avoided at all costs. Including extinction.

•   •   •  

China 'ready to use N-weapons against US'   [7/15/05]
Those "N-weapons" are nukes, incidentally.

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, according to a senior Chinese military official.
    "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Zhu Chenghu, a major general in the People's Liberation Army, said at an official briefing.
    Mr Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University, was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory includes warships and aircraft.

•   •   •  

Terrorism's root causes   [7/14/05]
Cal Thomas rips apart the tired Marxism about Islamic terror being caused by poverty and alienation.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to bring people to their senses. Former Israeli Prime Minister (and current Cabinet minister) Benjamin Netanyahu told BBC's "Breakfast" program Sunday that Iraq and other actions by Britain and America are the consequences of terror attacks, not the cause.
    He said to blame Britain and the United States for causing terrorism is "reverse causality." Netanyahu recalled the numerous terror attacks before the Iraq war and prior to 9/11, noting there was Islamic terrorism before 1948 when Israel became a modern state. If recent Israeli, American and British policies cause terrorism, how does one explain earlier terrorism?

•   •   •  

Among Janitors, Labor Violations Go With the Job   [7/14/05]
The New York Times has a hard time getting around to the words "illegal immigrant" but the conditions described are an important reminder that open borders are all about the ability of employers to rip off illegal alien workers.

In this netherworld, cleaning contractors sometimes hire illegal immigrants for $3.50 an hour, considerably less than the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage; janitors frequently work off the books, not paying taxes, and building owners do not look too closely at how the work gets done. [...]
    Although many janitors in New York, Los Angeles and other cities earn $10, $12, even $16 an hour in unionized jobs in big office towers, hundreds of thousands of janitors work in restaurants, supermarkets and shopping malls for a fraction of that pay. Some of the nation's biggest companies have agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months after complaints about janitorial practices.
    "Cleaning contractors deliberately seek out an undocumented work force because they want workers they can intimidate and exploit," said Lilia Garcia, executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a Los Angeles group run by business and labor representatives, which investigates janitorial companies to uncover illicit practices. "Workers who are here legally would not work for the wages that they pay."
    The metamorphosis of janitorial work is nowhere more apparent than in Los Angeles. In the early 1980's, janitorial jobs were coveted here, but building owners soured on the $12-an-hour prevailing wage, nearly four times the federal minimum then and the equivalent of $24 an hour today.

•   •   •  

Islamic Scholar Sentenced to Va. Prison   [7/13/05]
Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax, Virginia, will have plenty of time to read the Koran during his life sentence, due to his conviction for "soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law." He was the spiritual leader of the so-called "paintball jihad" group of young men who busied themselves by working on their weapons skills in order to pursue religious war against the United States.

Nine members of the group have been convicted for their roles in the conspiracy, with prison terms ranging from three years to life.

•   •   •  

Scarborough Country - July 11   [7/12/05]
The media have been asserting that Muslims in the United States are not as alienated from mainstream society as those in Europe. America is supposedly better at assimilating immigrants than the old country, having had more practice.
    Terror expert Steve Emerson believes that on the contrary, the United States faces the same challenges as Europe from fascist Islam.

EMERSON: I think that, unfortunately, there's a lot of deception. It goes on behind closed doors. The Lodi mosque, where there were just arrests of several clerics and a father and son, was a clear case of deception, where the cleric himself was involved in interfaith activity and yet he is believed to have been involved in espousing support for al Qaeda and actually recruiting for al Qaeda.
    So, I think there's a much larger problem in the United States. The Islamic groups that have condemned 9/11, have condemned the London attacks, never condemn the perpetrators. It's situational ethics. They condemn these attacks because they're — quote — "counterproductive," not because they're immoral, Joe. And I think there is a real problem here with the extent to which we have been deceived by this — quote — "moderation" and the veneer under which they operate. They're not moderate at all.
    They're the Muslim Brotherhood. They're the Hawan (ph). And they are the Wahhabists. And they have lobbies in the United States and they are growing stronger by the day. This is a real problem.

•   •   •  

Bouyeri: "I murdered film-maker Van Gogh in religion's name"   [7/12/05]
There's no dispute that Mohammed Bouyeri brutally shot and slashed the throat of Theodore Van Gogh on Nov. 2 in the streets of Amsterdam. The trial is therefore more interesting in terms of the mind of the killer, and how the ideology of Islam drove his actions. Bouyeri's words leave little doubt:

"I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion."
    "I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same."
    [To Van Gogh's mother, Anneke] "I cannot feel for you... because I believe you are a nonbeliever."
    "I acted out of conviction, not because I hated your son."

•   •   •  

A defiant Islam rises among young Britons   [7/11/05]
A lot of media coverage of the London bombing has been of the PC BS variety, such as the BBC emphasis on the diversity of the missing, where immigrants are listed first rather than edited into a proper alphabetical order. It's a relief, then, to read this more critical piece from the CS Monitor.
    London resident "Abdullah" apparently felt confident enough that he didn't need to disguise his seditious intent:

"We don't need to fight. We are taking over!" he said. "We are here to bring civilization to the West. England does not belong to the English people, it belongs to God." [...]
    Hours after the bombings, [Muslim prayer leader Abdul-Rahman al-] Helbawi logged onto an Internet chat room run by British Muslim extremists. "They were all congratulating each other on the attacks," he said. "It was crazy. They were talking about how they had won a great victory over the infidels, as if they had just come back from a battle."

•   •   •  

Wake Up, America   [7/10/05]
Investors Business Daily has shown rare common sense among the MSM, having earlier recognized the threat to national stability from open borders. Now the paper takes a realistic look at the Islamic terror menace and what must be done.

After 7/7: Freedom-loving Americans have just been reminded that the world is plagued by an evil that can neither be appeased nor accommodated. It can only be defeated by strong leadership and a will to win.
    We must never forget 9-11. We lost more Americans on that day than when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. The fanatical group of global terrorists wants to kill as many Christians and Jews as possible.
    This is World War III, yet it's unlike any war we've ever fought. But adversaries and naysayers should make no mistake: It's a war on terror, and we will win it.
    This new type of war flies under the subterfuge of God and religion. Yet our enemy's goal is to cold-bloodedly murder as many innocent people as possible, even its own people, and reassert total control and enslavement of women.
    If al-Qaida and other gangster groups that have worked together against their perceived common enemies get their hands on gas, germ or nuclear weapons that work, is there any doubt they'd use them on New York, Washington, Chicago or Los Angeles?

•   •   •  

We cannot stop these attacks, says Blair   [7/09/05]
Here is some bitter honesty from Britain's Prime Minister, that even maximum surveillance cannot stop determined Islamists from murdering at will.

"If people are actually prepared to go on to a Tube or a bus and blow up wholly innocent people, people just at random, to do the maximum death and destruction without any thought for their human rights or human life, you can have all the surveillance in the world and you couldn't stop that happening," he said.

•   •   •  

We Cannot Surrender   [7/08/05]
Christopher Hitchens responds to the London bombings with a strong reminder that jihadists have no political agenda other than to impose Stalinesque sharia law on the entire planet. Their "grievances" against the West consist of our culture, our individual rights and our most basic freedoms.

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.

•   •   •  

Border watchers coming to city   [7/08/05]
The Minutemen are bringing their fire to bear on Houston, and not a minute too soon. The city has basic issues concerning the rule of law.

Houston Police Department policy forbids officers from asking about immigration status in most cases. The city also funds day labor sites used by immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to find work.

•   •   •  

Four London Blasts Kill 40   [7/07/05]
How disappointing that dozens of innocent Londoners have been murdered in cold blood, but no political leader has had the grit to name the enemy. To a man, they are shocked, shocked that more "terrorists" have struck at one of the world's great cities, but no one says that the enemy is radical Islam, dedicated to destroying the West.
    Tony Blair swears that Brits "will not be intimidated." yet clings to the silly belief that "the vast majority of Muslims... are law-abiding." That's a lawyer's contrivance, hiding more than it reveals. Why not instead ask how many Muslims residing in England support the Islamification of Europe (Answer here). They are a fifth column community in which active jihadis can live in plain sight.
    Furthermore, Blair seemed genuinely surprised that Qaedas attacked when he was performing good works as defined by the leftist playbook.

"It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa and the long term problems of climate change and the environment.

•   •   •  

Searching for Lessons in Jefferson High Melee   [7/06/05]
Sadly, the ethnic conflict between black and hispanic students in the Los Angeles school was entirely predictable. It would be wonderful if we could "just all get along," but human nature is hardwired for suspicion about those who look or speak different from our familiar tribe.
    It's only the media's daily dose of multiculturalism propaganda that makes us surprised when humans act like humans. An honest look at history shows that our little planet has been awash in wars and conflict based on just those differences we are urged to celebrate -- race, religion, ethnicity, language and culture.
    The politically correct ideology of peace, love and diversity quickly comes unglued under stress, as people fall back into instinctual, rather than learned, behavior. But it's only our tribal roots showing. Having a strongly developed sense of us versus them was a good way to stay alive throughout much of human history.
    Incidentally, note that on the 2003-4 graph of the Los Angeles Unified School District white students are so few that they are now grouped with "other." LA is now a largely Mexican city, a demographic transformation that has occurred in a heartbeat.
    The sensible cure is to end immigration for several decades for assimilation to happen, or else the ethnic wars have only just begun.

•   •   •  

Europe is learning a hard lesson from Muslim immigrant experience   [7/06/05]
An Irish paper presents a short overview of the symptoms of what has gone wrong as a result of Muslims' refusal to assimilate to western values of individual responsibility and gender equality.

Muslims make up 5.5% of the Dutch population, but more than half the women in battered women's shelters are Muslims. Muslim women have far higher suicide rates than their non-Muslim counterparts. And some Muslim women from African backgrounds are being genitally mutilated.
    Germany has similar problems. Parts of east Berlin are made up entirely of Turkish immigrants who are neither integrated into the host community nor able to speak German. One solution is to make pre-schooling compulsory. And the German state of Hessen has become the first to require that children pass a language test before getting into primary school. [...]
    But now Schroeder is heading for defeat in the German elections and the person likely to replace him as chancellor, Angela Merkel, takes a different view. She wants 'privileged partnership' status for Turkey which probably means free trade but no open borders. Some might call this policy racist or right-wing. But given the problem which European countries are already experiencing, does it really make sense to admit a country like Turkey which has 90 million people and a democratic and human rights culture that is, at best, a work in progress?

•   •   •  

Lou Dobbs Tonight - the Cost to California of Illegal Immigration   [7/06/05]
Here is a brief excerpt from the CNN show, focusing on how the brutal financial realities of illegal immigration are crushing the state of California. The good news is hearing some straight talk from an elected official in Sacramento, in this case Assemblyman Haynes saying that the huge budget deficit is largely a result of foreigner nationals feeding at the social benefits trough. The bad news is that the Democrats who run the legislature are still full steam ahead for continued irresponsible spending for illegal aliens.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California is home to more illegal aliens than any other state, nearly three million. And they cost taxpayers here an estimated $10 billion a year. [...]
    RAY HAYNES, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMAN: California bears a disproportionate amount of the cost of illegal immigration. This should be one of the most important issues to California. Our budget deficit today is, by and large, created by covering services for illegal immigrants.
    WIAN: Haynes says for about five percent of what the state spends on illegal aliens, the California Border Police could arrest and detain enough illegal aliens to save the state about $5 billion a year.
    Another effort is modeled after Arizona's Proposition 200. It would deny all state services to illegal aliens, except for kindergarten through 12th graded indication and emergency medical care, which are mandated by federal law. And it would require proof of citizenship for registering to vote or casting a ballot.
    MARK WYLAND, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMAN: It's something that is obviously a very contentious issue and is a problem, I think, of such a magnitude that we cannot make this state work well unless we address this problem.
    And among Latinos, for the first time, in 2003 and 2004, their actual earnings are declining. This is probably the result of this uncontrolled illegal immigration.
    WIAN: Still, both proposals failed to advance beyond a state assembly committee. California's legislature is controlled by Democrats, and several civil rights and minority groups spoke against the measures.
    VIVEK MALHOTRA, ACLU: We oppose any efforts to write discrimination into our constitution.
    WIAN: But supporters of the efforts to crack down on illegal aliens say a majority of voters would approve of benefit cuts and a state border police. So it will soon begin gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to bypass the state legislature.

•   •   •  

No longer a refugee   [7/05/05]
Here's a typical piece of diversity propaganda from the press, repeating the tiresome message that America is enriched by accepting the random cultures of the planet. It's mostly cheerful, upbeat stories of how newbies are working toward their American dream, but sometimes a little un-PC truth leaks out.

Some also brought their prejudices, honed by a decade of civil war and strife, with them. Caseworker Dieujuste Pierre recalls how dicey it was when some of the Kosovars and Serbs - mortal enemies in their homeland - were placed in the same buildings at Terrace and the same work stations at Home Shopping Network.
    Once, Pierre asked a friendly Serb to help him pick up a Kosovar at the airport and settle him into his new apartment. Everything went smoothly, until later when the Serb confided to Pierre: "Maybe one day I will see that man on the street, and I will murder him. He is my enemy."

•   •   •  

Interview with Rep. Tom Tancredo   [7/05/05]
The pre-eminent spokesman for the cause of immigration control and American sovereignty talks about the issues and his upcoming plans for affecting the next Presidential election. When was the last time you listened to a politician speak for over 20 minutes on subjects that really matter? It's reassuring to know that not every elected official in Washington is a puppet of open-borders business interests.

"I think it is the most important domestic policy issue we can face," he said. "I am intent on making this immigration issue part of the national debate during that Presidential election... and I will do that any way I can."

•   •   •  

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!   [7/04/05]
Click on the link to hear Ray Charles singing America! Plus, here are some other musical links, suitable for the day:
•   There's a selection of patriotic music from the Air Force Band here.
•   Hear Kate Smith sing God Bless America
•   Listen to WC Edgar with Red White and Black
•   The Kingston Trio sings This Land Is Your Land (from www.ScubaNaked.com, which also has an excellent 9/11 photo page).

•   •   •  

Mexico's fight against drugs is a failure, analysts say   [7/04/05]
Mexico is careening into a breakdown of law and order, politely called a "failed state" in diplomatic lingo. The Mexican government recently sent the army in to regain control in Nuevo Laredo, because the police there were largely in the pay of the drug cartels and violence had become too outrageous to ignore. Of course there no reason to believe that the army is immune from the limitless cash of the cartels, demonstrated by the case of the Zetas, elite army personnel who joined up with the Gulf cartel.

But a rising chorus of voices in Mexico and the United States says the real results are record levels of violence, instability and corruption in Mexico, resurgent drug cartels, nearly 200 dead police officers and soldiers, along with millions of wasted dollars in a country where half the population of 105 million is poor. Mexico receives almost no aid from the United States. [...]
    Before the violence spirals out of control, as it has in Colombia as a result of similar policies, [political commentator Jose Antonio] Crespo said, Mexico should go back to pretending to fight an unwinnable war rather than fighting it in earnest.
    "If the United States is not going to legalize drugs, then Mexico has to come to terms with the narcos," he said. "There were agreements in the past to let 80 percent of the drugs through, to allow some seizures for the Americans and for the media, and there was a lot less violence."

•   •   •  

Gaylord Nelson dies at age 89   [7/03/05]
Sadly, a rare statesman has passed from this life. Senator Gaylord Nelson was primarily known for his environmental leadership, particularly founding Earth Day in 1970. He served for 18 years in the Senate where he sponsored or co-sponsored numerous conservation bills, including the Clean Air Act, legislation to preserve the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail and the Clean Water Act. He was defeated in his 1980 Senate campaign and later became the legal counselor of the Wilderness Society. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his leadership on conservation.
    Nelson was a uncommon voice for sanity in population matters, both worldwide and domestic. Like many early environmentalists, he valued preserving the earth more than adhering to the censorship of political correctness.
    When asked, "What is the number one environmental problem facing the earth today?" Nelson answered:

"If you had to choose just one, it would have to be population.... The bigger the population gets, the more serious the problems become.... We have to address the population issue. The United Nations, with the U.S. supporting it, took the position in Cairo in 1994 that every country was responsible for stabilizing its own population. It can be done. But in this country, it's phony to say 'I'm for the environment but not for limiting immigration.' It's just a fact that we can't take all the people who want to come here. And you don't have to be a racist to realize that. However, the subject has been driven out of public discussion because everybody is afraid of being called racist if they say they want any limits on immigration."

•   •   •  

ABC pulls controversial 'Neighborhood' reality series   [7/03/05]
An edgy new TV show apparently had too much reality happening. The premise was that a neighborhood in Austin Texas would be allowed to choose what kind of family would move into an empty house. Being normal human beings, they wanted people like themselves.

Each family initially wants someone similar to them — white and conservative.
    Instead, they must choose from a diverse group that includes families that are black, Hispanic and Asian; two gay white men who've adopted a black child; a couple covered in tattoos and piercings; a couple who met at the woman's initiation as a witch; and a poor white family.
    In the early episodes, one man makes a crack about the number of children piling out of the Hispanic family's car and displays of affection between the gay men provoke disgust.

•   •   •  

Terror-Linked Migrants Crossing Into U.S.   [7/02/05]
While the Bush administration continues to concentrate on its foreign strategy, America's lack of border security allows a diverse gaggle of the world's terror community to enter at will.

Until his arrest in December 2002, Boughader smuggled about 200 Lebanese compatriots into the United States, including sympathizers of Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by U.S. authorities. One client, Boughader said, worked for a Hezbollah-owned television network, which glorifies suicide bombers and is itself on an American terror watch list. [...]
    An AP investigation found these are just some of the many pipelines in Central and South America, Mexico and Canada that have illegally channeled thousands of people into the United States from so-called "special-interest" countries — those identified by the U.S. government as sponsors or supporters of terrorism.
    Even when caught, illegal immigrants from those countries and other nations are sometimes released while awaiting deportation hearings, then miss those court dates, according to the AP's investigation, which also documented deep concerns about security threats along the lightly patrolled, 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada border. [...]
    "For us, Hezbollah are not terrorists," said Boughader, a Mexican of Lebanese descent, echoing the feelings of most Lebanese. "I regret that what I was doing is against the law, but I don't regret what I did to help people."

•   •   •  

Minutemen celebrate early Independence Day   [7/02/05]

The Veterans for Secure Borders were present for the Phoenix rally of the Minuteman Project. (Larger picture here)
    Founder Chris Simcox reported that there are now 18 chapters throughout several states and that going after businesses that hire illegals is a high priority.
    Elsewhere, the Minutemen are busy in Utah working for American sovereignty and the rule of law.

Wally McCormick never really thought that at age 68 he'd become a political activist. But there he was last month, outside a suburban bank with about 100 people at a protest he helped organize for a cause he says he's prepared to die for.
    This particular action targeted banks that allow illegal immigrants to use identification cards issued by the Mexican government to open up accounts. Others are planned for businesses and even the state for allegedly hiring undocumented workers.
    For McCormick, a Utah Minuteman organizer, it's always about illegal immigration, which he blames for the spread of new diseases, booming crime, unemployment among American citizens and crippled social welfare systems.
    He says he'll keep doing it "until America is safe again and back in the hands of its citizens."

•   •   •  

Lou Dobbs Tonight Warns about CAFTA   [7/01/05]
This is important reporting about the looming Central American Free Trade Agreement's danger to American sovereignty. The trade deal can literally dismantle legal protections which US law has built up over our history.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CAFTA is much more than a trade agreement. If it passes, it would become the highest law of the land, determining rules from health care, to zoning, to immigration.
    Current federal, state and local laws could be called into question.
    LORI WALLACH, PUBLIC CITIZEN: Any violation of 1,000 pages of international law imposed on us is taken to an international tribunal, not U.S. courts, where if the U.S. does not conform its law, we face perpetual trade sanctions. It's a huge attack on our sovereignty and our democracy.
    SYLVESTER: If a local community passed a law to limit urban sprawl, it could be challenged under CAFTA by a foreign investor who wants to build. States with buy American laws that give preference to local companies could be asked to reverse those laws. Even U.S. immigration laws and visa requirements could be considered a violation under CAFTA.
    Any company wishing to come into the United States, and either start a business or complete a contract, can bring their employees in from the country of origin. Even if our visa system is -- or even if our visa quota is full.
    SYLVESTER: The U.S. trade representative's office points to a side agreement to CAFTA that excludes immigration. But Congressman Tom Tancredo said the side agreements from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico have not been worth the paper they're written on.
    REP. TOM TANCREDO, (R) COLORADO: Scores of them have been ignored. Because they're not part of the agreement. That's why it's called a side agreement. And because they're not part of the agreement, they have no legal bearing.
    SYLVESTER: Supporters of CAFTA say it will open up Central American markets to U.S. companies and lead to lower prices for consumers. But critics are urging lawmakers to look at the fine print, because they may be giving away far more than they're getting.

•   •   •  

© 2005 Brenda Walker All rights reserved.