October 2005
 
Warning Signs   [10/31/05]
At this writing, the President is trying to get back his conservative base by nominating a right-leaning judge for the Supreme Court. However, President Bush would be unwise to continue to ignore the border crisis, at least according to pollster Frank Luntz.

Voters have not been galvanized by scandals in Washington, but they are alarmed about illegal immigration, Luntz said. The president's insistence on creating a "guest worker" program to employ illegals puts him "on the wrong side of the solution." When he raises illegal immigration in focus groups of 30 people, Luntz said, "you can't shut people up."

•   •   •  

If the Problem Is Muslim Terror, Then What?   [10/31/05]
Classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson responds to President Bush's long overdue naming of the enemy.

Practical considerations also get in the way of securing the homeland. Any radical change in our immigration laws — affecting entry into the U.S., systematic deportation of illegal aliens, or scrutiny of visa holders — requires comprehensive reform. And such transformation immediately raises the question of what to do with the 10 to 15 million illegal Mexican aliens residing here and with our vast, unsecured southern border. So far, sensitivity to Hispanic concerns, both here and in Mexico, coupled with employer lobbying, has precluded securing the border and insisting on legality for all new immigrants. Deporting illegal aliens from the Middle East will immediately lead to questions as to why we are not deporting millions of unlawful Mexican residents — a political hot potato.
    Yet immigration control — as the Dutch and French have learned — may be the most powerful tool in the war against the jihadists. Not only does it help keep terrorists out, it also carries symbolic weight. In the Middle East, America is worshipped even as it is hated —constantly slurred even as it proves the Number One destination for thousands upon thousands of would-be immigrants from the Islamic world. Once we have deported the Islamists, and Middle Easterners and other Muslims find it much harder to enter the U.S. because of their governments' tolerance for radical anti-Americanism, the message will resound all the more loudly in the Muslim world itself that terrorism is intolerable.
    Such toughness opposes the current orthodoxy, which holds that curtailing immigration from the Arab and Muslim world will cost us a key opportunity to inculcate moderates and eventually send back emissaries of goodwill. Maybe; but so far, the profile of the Islamic terrorist is someone who has paid back our magnanimity with deadly contempt. Just as bin Ladin, Dr. Zawahiri, and the Pakistanis suspected of bombing the London subways were not poor, uneducated, or unfamiliar with the West, so too we find that those arrested for terrorist activities on our shores seem to hate us all the more because of our liberality.

•   •   •  

Mexico's Undiplomatic Diplomats   [10/31/05]
Heather MacDonald details how Mexican consulates work relentlessly as a fifth column to destroy American sovereignty and increase the numbers of remittance-sending expats, thereby keeping the rich oligarchs fat and happy.
    And while Mexico is unfortunately our next-door neighbor, we share very little with them in terms of values. A further Mexicanized America will become more corrupt, face increased violence from criminal gangs and lose ground in women's rights and safety.

The Mexican government knows just how subversive its matricula effort is. A consulate's right to issue such a card to its nationals is indisputable; where the Mexican diplomats push the envelope is in lobbying governments to adopt it as an American ID. In announcing the normalization-through-the-matricula push, then-foreign minister Jorge Castaneda was characteristically blunt: "We are already giving instructions to our consulates that they begin propagating militant activities — if you will — in their communities."
    And yet, Mexico's consuls comically pretend that they know nothing of their countrymen's immigration violations and wouldn't possibly interfere with America's response even if they did. "Our formal policy is not to ask the immigration status, because we don't have anything to do with that," explains the outspoken consul for Santa Ana, Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro Amieva, speaking in his narrow office above the consular reception area. "Our services don't have anything to do with immigration status," he says implausibly.
    This pose gets more challenging all the time, because legal immigration from Mexico has basically stopped. Eighty percent of all Mexicans who arrived in the U.S. over the last decade crossed the border furtively, a rate that has only increased of late. These illegal arrivals now outnumber legal Mexicans in the U.S. And the more the disabilities of illegal status diminish, the greater the future flow of illegals will be.

•   •   •  

English learning expands   [10/30/05]
Can you say "Tower of Babel"? That would be California's school system which is crumbling under the ever-increasing tsunami of immigration to this beleagured state.

And a quarter of the state's youth -- 1.6 million public school children -- are still learning to speak English.
    English language learner programs have exploded in size and complexity over the past decade. There are 300,000 more "ELL" students in California now than in 1995. The numbers have doubled in Contra Costa County, and grown by a third in Alameda County.

•   •   •  

Sacramento Rally October 29   [10/30/05]


Clink on the link to see my photo essay of the pro-borders demonstration on the California Capitol steps that took place yesterday, reported in the media here and here.

•   •   •  

Second night of rioting in Paris   [10/29/05]
It's not much noticed by the MSM that Paris has been erupting in serious street violence. Apparently a couple of Muslim thieves managed to electrocute themselves as they fled from police — for that, the local sons of Allah have been going nuts. See French pix and video here.)

Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a suburb of Paris early Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers died fleeing police.
    The two teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they fled from police investigating a break-in, media reported.
    Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.
    Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.
    A police trade union called for help from the army to support police officers.
    "There's a civil war underway in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC, said .

•   •   •  

Cities of the Future   [10/28/05]
While LTG concentrates on American immigration and population growth, the worldwide explosion cannot be forgotten. The boomer generation has experienced an unprecedented global population doubling, from 3 billion in 1960 to over 6 billion today. The effects are everywhere, yet strangely remain unmentioned in public discourse.
    A rare exception is "E" Magazine, which tackles as its current cover story the skyrocketing growth of cities. The problems posed by growing numbers of third-world cities of more than 20 million residents are disturbing indeed.

Today, the most populous city is Tokyo (26.5 million people in 2001), followed by Sao Paulo (18.3 million), Mexico City (18.3 million), New York (16.8 million) and Bombay/Mumbai (16.5 million). But by 2015 this list will change, with Tokyo remaining the largest city (then with 27.2 million), followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh), Mumbai, Sao Paulo, New Delhi and Mexico City (each with more than 20 million). New York will have moved down to seventh place, followed by Jakarta, Calcutta, Karachi and Lagos (all with more than 16 million). [...]
    The rise of mega-cities, comments the Washington Post, "poses formidable challenges in health care and the environment, in both the developed and developing world. The urban poor in developing countries live in squalor unlike anything they left behind... In Caracas, more than half the total housing stock is squatter housing. In Bangkok, the regional economy is 2.1 percent smaller than it otherwise would be because of time lost in traffic jams. The mega-cities of the future pose huge problems for waste management, water use and climate change."

•   •   •  

Stopping Terror At The Border   [10/27/05]
The media likes to shriek that illegal immigration is an irresistable force that cannot be stopped, such as in the reporting below. In fact, the government has never made a serious attempt to end immigration anarchy, which would require both border and workplace enforcement. Merely requiring employers to check Social Security numbers and making that a prerequisite of legal employment would be easy and effective — exactly why it hasn't been legislated.
    There are online videos included with this article worth watching, particularly the one with Janice L. Kephart, Counsel to the 9/11 Commission.

The United States projects a record 4,000 immigrants from so-called "high risk" countries in the Middle East and Asia, will be arrested trying to enter the country illegally this year.
    Far more will get through. Add to that Mexico's recent seizures of high powered weapons, including rocket launchers found in Tijuana, and U.S. officials fear a troubling new threat on our porous southern border, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.
    "If it's so simple for an uneducated, impoverished laborer to come across the border, think about how much easier it is for a highly trained, well financed terrorist," warns T.J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol union.
    From Tijuana to Texas, the entry routes are well established and well known around the world.
    And nothing seems to work. The U.S. government has put up lights and cameras, but still the immigrants come.
    Flooding across even where you'd least expect. Surveillance video from U.S. Army Ft. Huachuca on the Arizona-Mexico border. Thousands cross here, right under the nose of the military, even during target practice. [...]
    U.S. border officials are quick to point out there is no credible evidence of terrorists actually slipping across, but there are red flags. One Lebanese native living in Tijuana, convicted of smuggling 200 Lebanese into the United States, some with known ties to Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terror group.

•   •   •  

Brain drain of Third-World docs blamed on rich   [10/27/05]
One quarter of MDs practicing in the US are foreigners — is medicine a job Americans just don't want? Hardly. And there is no clamor among citizens for doctors who speak inadequate English or have sexist attitudes.
    Furthermore, no one in the west is kidnapping Indian doctors and forcing them to come to America, as is suggested in this article. (Indians living in the US love to bemoan the horrors of the brain drain.)

Twenty-five percent of doctors in North America, Britain and Australia are immigrants who attended a foreign medical school, contributing to a brain drain that deprives poor countries of good medical care, researchers say.
    As many as three-quarters of physicians who come to rich countries hail from less-developed ones grappling with AIDS, infectious diseases and other health scourges, a study found. In the United States, for example, most foreign doctors are from India, the Philippines and Pakistan.
    "The brain drain has also weakened the physician work forces of many poor nations," wrote Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, a professor of medicine and health policy at George Washington University, who led the study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
    The foreign doctors typically come to the United States and other rich countries to complete their residencies -- the post-medical school training period -- and many stay on to practice medicine.

•   •   •  

Catch and Release   [10/27/05]
Investor's Business Daily notes the appalling dearth of immigration enforcement. Americans remain at risk for terrorist attacks because the White House has chosen to keep the cheap-labor pipeline open rather than protect the nation.

After 9-11, Congress learned the old INS was napping while a shocking 314,000 fugitive aliens, many of them violent felons, roamed the country free. Good thing those days are gone, huh? Guess again.
    Other than the INS' name, not much has changed. ICE, the new Department of Homeland Security branch dedicated to catching and removing such criminal absconders, has barely put a dent in the problem. Though ICE caught a record 11,000 fugitive aliens last year, the absconder total has climbed to 465,000.
    Absconders are foreigners who were ordered deported after breaking U.S. immigration laws, but then fled before they could be removed. In other words, they were released from custody and trusted to appear for removal, as if an illegal alien weren't inherently a flight risk and would never think of making a run for it.
    Now they're fugitives from justice, and many are dangerous. Nearly one in five — about 80,000 — have committed other crimes such as robbery, rape and murder. Thousands are from the Middle East or Pakistan, and some of these are terror suspects.
    But ICE has deployed only 16 teams to try to catch them — or catch them again — across all 50 states. So investigators and officers are still spread thin — four years after America was attacked by 19 Arab immigrants, some of whom were living here illegally. Result: Would-be terrorists and other criminals remain at large.

•   •   •  

Revisiting an Immigrant Family   [10/27/05]
Leave it to PBS to glorify a family of illegals, sponging off the American taxpayer. Typically there is no attention to how millions of uninvited foreigners have made life far more difficult for citizens by driving down wages for citizens and destroying public education in areas where their numbers are high.

JEFFREY KAYE: Today Paco, now 33 and Celina, have a daughter, Natalie. Paco is a dock worker. Celina also works at the port part-time. She's applying for US citizenship, but the family considers itself bi-national.
    CELINA CORREA: I love this country very, very much because they give me a lot of opportunities. They give me job. They give family. They give everything -- everything, all the opportunities that are awaiting is just in here. But at the same time part of my heart is Mexico.

•   •   •  

Australia: Police told to respect traditions   [10/26/05]
Muslim husbands are free to beat their wives in Down Under, just like in dear old Allahistan. Does Australia not have guaranteed protections of equal rights under the law? Apparently not.
    But such weaseling is no surprise. Women's rights and safety are always the first to be thrown overboard to preserve the sanctity of multiculturalism.

POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits.
    Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.
    Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.
    The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background.
    Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally.
    Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims."

•   •   •  

Froma Harrop: Is a return to child labor next?   [10/26/05]
The columnist reflects upon Washington's limited belief in market forces when it comes to the American worker, as expressed in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS OFFERS a quick study of Bush labor policy in action:
    On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina strikes, causing widespread destruction. Four days later, President Bush commits $10.1 billion of the taxpayers' money to rebuilding New Orleans. Four days after that, he suspends the Davis-Bacon Act -- the law that requires federal contractors to pay workers the going local rate.
    Illegal immigrants, willing to work at less-than-prevailing wages, stream into New Orleans. And a mere six weeks after the last evacuee leaves the Superdome, we hear of complaints by illegal workers that employers are stiffing them of their meager pay.
    So here you have it, a lesson on how to crush the market for blue-collar labor. And it could have been done in four PowerPoint slides.
    In the Bush view, market forces may do their magic for some Americans but not for others. They can operate freely when they raise the prices for stocks, oil or real estate. But when they raise the price for American labor, something must be done.

•   •   •  

Resettlement officials expect more refugees from Somalia   [10/26/05]
According to the World Health Organization, 98 percent of Somalis practice the brutal form of child torture known as female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice which is illegal if performed in this country. (For a map of prevalence, see this link.) Yet the government welcomes this criminal culture and requires taxpayers to foot the bill for the resettlement.

The number of Somalis is expected to remain strong, if not grow, said John Borden, executive director of the International Institute of Minnesota, which helped resettle almost 40 percent of Minnesota's refugees in 2004.
    Borden said the large Ethiopian exodus has nearly ended, Borden said.
    "Ethiopia is largely resettled," Borden said. "There is potential for a higher percentage of the Somalis and West Africans. So among Somalis, you will see smiles."

•   •   •  

Voice of the Oppressed   [10/26/05]
The situation of Turkish women in Germany has come under more scrutiny this year with the "honor" killings of several Muslim women, such as Hatin Surucu. She was murdered by her family for adopting a western lifestyle and living as an individual.
    What's interesting now is that Turkish women are speaking up about their second-class status by writing books that tell their stories.

One of the more compelling memoirs is "I Only Wanted to Be Free," by Hulya Kalkan, an adventure story of forged passports and family battles as the German-born author and her sister escape the rigid Koranic schools and forced marriages arranged for them in Turkey's Anatolia mountains. Kalkan is pictured on the book's cover, a striking young woman with uncovered long, black hair and dark eyes, who seems at once to embody European cosmopolitanism and Muslim tradition.
    Trapped in the apartment of relatives in Turkey, Kalkan writes: "I cannot stand on the balcony and cry for help. People would consider me crazy. The police? They are all men. And on whose side would they be? It's useless.... It's like I'm locked in a prison. My crime? I am 17 and I am unmarried."
    Accounts such as Kalkan's have led to calls for stricter laws to protect women from exploitation and even death. They also have complicated cultural arguments over religion and immigration. For example, although arranged marriages are sanctioned by Islam, the unions are often exploited by village clans for secular and financial reasons: to keep relatives working in Europe so money can flow back to their native countries.

•   •   •  

Silicon Valley's Past and Future   [10/25/05]
Spencer Michaels of San Francisco's KQED has been keeping tabs on the former tech utopia to the south. The speed at which Silicon Valley has collapsed is truly mind-boggling — from go-go economy to dazed globalization victim as a result of outsourcing and immigration. So the 850,000 tech workers now employed there are not all Americans by any means.

SPENCER MICHELS: The job cuts are part of a valley-wide trend. Despite the fact that profits for some big companies are up several-fold recently, total high-tech employment in Silicon Valley, today about 850,000, has declined almost a quarter in the last five years.

•   •   •  

CBS News Poll: U.S. Border Control Lacking   [10/25/05]
This poll is from a random telephone survey, not from the online voluntary sort.

In this CBS News Poll, three in four Americans say the U.S. is not doing enough along its borders to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country. Just 15 percent say the U.S. is doing enough. Significant majorities of all demographic groups say the U.S. is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the border.

•   •   •  

Our Saudi Foes   [10/25/05]
The Senate Judiciary Committee had scheduled today for an important hearing about Saudi Arabia — whether it is friend or foe. But the hearing has been postponed, supposedly because of the press of many other issues, such as the failing Miers nomination for the Supreme Court, and certainly the committee is busy now. But there has been no rescheduling of the hearing, which is troubling.
    The ever-excellent Frank Gaffney rhetorically asks, "Which side are the Saudis on?"

Had the hearing not been cancelled, senators would have received powerful evidence of the Saudis' true colors. From former Clinton CIA Director James Woolsey and a member of the International Religious Freedom Commission, Nina Shea, they would have heard the breathtaking results of a study performed earlier this year by Freedom House. It indisputably demonstrated that the Saudi government has been directly responsible for putting materials rife with jihadist propaganda and incitement in American mosques.
    From Yigal Carmon, the founder of the highly-respected Middle East Media Research Institute, legislators would have seen videos of similar hate-mongering that represents standard fare on Saudi television. (It is to be hoped that, when the hearing is held, senators will examine whether such material will now be beamed directly into the United States via DirecTV. This would appear to be the upshot of a deal whereby a controversial Saudi prince, Al-Waleed bin Talal, purchased more than 5 percent of the voting stock of the satellite company's parent and of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, parent of Fox News. (See http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19652).
    And from Steven Emerson, world-renowned anti-terrorism expert, senators doubtless would have heard chilling details about the Saudi footprint in America. The mosques, schools (madrassas), student organizations, Muslim-American and Arab-American agitation operations, businesses and recruitment operations -- notably in U.S. prisons and the military -- that are funded and dominated by Islamist Saudi Wahhabis.

•   •   •  

Citing medical errors, California seeks to ban child interpreters   [10/23/05]
Here comes another cost piled on to providing healthcare for the millions of immigrants in our midst.

The new rules proposed by the state Department of Managed Care, if instituted, would require private health plans to provide patients with trained, adult interpreters. They could take effect by March.
    The California Association of Health Plans, which represents the state's largest managed care plans, estimates that translating medical materials and hiring a fleet of professional interpreters could cost as much as $15 million.
    Who will pay for those services is expected to be a key point of debate in the months ahead.
    "This is going to be a battle," said Cindy Ehnes, director of the Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates the industry. "There is no question that hospitals are extremely concerned about additional costs."
    Many hospitals already have begun using cheaper alternatives, such as telephone or video interpretation services. But health care industry representatives say the new regulations could boost costs for everyone.

•   •   •  

Over 10,000 Saudi Students US- Bound   [10/23/05]
Someone forgot to tell Washington that it is their job to protect citizens, not fall for every crackpot multicultural idea that comes along.

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- More than 10,000 Saudi students will travel to the US to attend university as part of a government-sponsored program following the adoption of new measures by the Ministry of Higher Education aimed at facilitating travel procedures for Saudis. In total, 21,000 Saudis are expected to take part in the program in the next four years.
    Prospective students can submit their applications to the Ministry of Higher Education through a Ministry special office or its website for nine different specializations and will be able to benefit from assistance with their visa applications at the US embassy and its diplomatic missions throughout the country.
    Fahd al Manur, a student who decided to enroll in the program told Asharq al Awsat, "I do not fear traveling to the US since Americans are a friendly people. Relations between our two countries have greatly improved recently and travel procedures are easier nowadays after being almost impossible following September 11th 2001." Studying in the US would be a dream come true, he added, despite recent events. King Abdullah's visit earlier this year strengthened bilateral relations and "reassured Saudis."

•   •   •  

Tancredo takes on immigration, terrorism   [10/23/05]
Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Republican member of Congress continues to speak out on subjects that terrify many others in public life.

The congressman spoke about a recent appearance he made at a high school in Douglas County, where he asked the students how many of them thought America was the greatest country in the world. "Maybe 10 percent raised their hands, and only with trepidation," he said.
    "Somebody taught them to be that way," Tancredo continued. "It's the teachers, the textbooks, the media. Everything is designed to debase and degrade Western civilization. What has happened to the idea that children and adults were proud to be Americans? What has happened to make them uncomfortable to say it?
    "The cult of multi-culturalism has engulfed us."
    Tancredo went on to say that the "cult of multi-culturalism" has created a dangerous situation in America.
    "This cult has become a national security issue," he said. "We are so politically correct that we can't say the name of our enemy in this war. 'Terrorism' is the tactic used - it's not the entity. 'Terrorism' is too generic. It's against Islamic fascism."
    Tancredo said that people are "fearful of using that phrase because it's a religion or a culture."
    "The epithet 'racism' is always woven into the discussion," Tancredo said. "It's got nothing to do with this debate and why I entered into it. When people run out of all intellectual debate they resort to name-calling. If they tag you as a racist, they diminish you."
    Tancredo said that people coming into America should be made welcome, but "you should know you are now separating yourself from wherever you came from to become American. Your first allegiance is to this country."

•   •   •  

Fears for harvest on the border   [10/22/05]
There are 20 million illegal aliens in this country, and apparently few of them want to pick crops.

"The pay is so low and the benefits so lacking, the conditions so harsh, that people don't stay in the industry," said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers union. "If you're an undocumented worker and you start in the fields, as soon as you can, you find a job in another industry."
    Only about 10 percent of the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country are in agriculture, farmers say. The rest fill jobs in construction, hotels, restaurants, factories and landscaping.

•   •   •  

O.C.'s new realidad   [10/22/05]
Orange County California — if you still imagine the place as the quintessential white Republican enclave, you would be living in the past. Because of open borders, the demographics have changed radically in the wake of the Mexican tsunami.

BECAUSE PERCEPTION LAGS REALITY, too many people still think of Orange County as white, intolerant and ultra-conservative. The facts show otherwise: The county now has more non-whites than whites. Its largest school district, Santa Ana, is more than 90% Latino. Among its still generally Republican politicians are sprinkled a few Democrats, including a Latina member of Congress.
    Yet the county can't seem to get its image to reflect its livelier, more diverse reality. Maybe that's because TV shows such as "The O.C." and "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" depict an overwhelmingly white, suburban population.

•   •   •  

46% boost in tech visas proposed   [10/21/05]
Did you think that Washington finally had gotten the message that Americans are sick to death of endless immigration swamping our communities and displacing citizens in jobs? No way! The Senate Judiciary Committee voted yesterday for an increase in tech visas, with the help of our California Senator:

Under a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the annual number of H-1B visas would increase from 65,000 to 95,000. The increase was approved by the Judiciary Committee after it rejected a proposal by Specter for an increase of twice the size, to 125,000 a year.
    High-tech executives have been pushing for more of the controversial H-1B visas, which critics say displace American workers in favor of less expensive foreigners beholden to the company that sponsors them.
    The fate of the proposed increase is uncertain. The measure, which also would raise the fee employers pay for each six-year visa by $500, was added to a broad budget bill intended to save $300 million over the next five years.

•   •   •  

Surging Mexican violence draws comparisons to Colombia   [10/21/05]
The situation of continuing drug cartel violence in Mexican border cities despite the best efforts of el Presidente Vicente Fox indicates how far down the road Mexico has gone to being a complete narco-state. The level of danger for law enforcement officers is higher because the level of violence has escalated and the cartels are outfitted like armies. In addition, some of their top muscle are trained soldiers, e.g. the Zetas who have already committed drug-related assassinations in America, it is believed.

The level of mayhem in Mexico still does not approach Colombia's violence then, when politicians, dozens of judges and hundreds of police officers were killed. Kingpin Pablo Escobar was also blamed for the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians, including the bombing of an in-flight commercial jetliner, killing all 107 aboard. Police commandos killed Escobar in 1993.
    Compared with Colombia, Mexico has had relative calm since the 1910 Mexican Revolution. But new, menacing signs abound:
    An estimated 1,100 people have been killed in drug-related slayings so far this year, and analysts say that the epicenter of the hemisphere's drug war has shifted to Mexico. [...]
    The threat in Mexico is rising because of a shift in the drug trade, U.S. anti-drug officials and drug-trade specialists say. Mexico - and not Colombia - is now headquarters for the Western hemisphere's most important drug traffickers.
    Rami Schwartz, a Mexican radio commentator and founder of Mexico.com, one of the country's leading Internet portals, said he believes that drug corruption is so pervasive in Mexico - nearly half of the Nuevo Laredo's police force was fired because of suspected collaboration with drug traffickers - that the country is "way beyond Colombianization."

•   •   •  

Transparency International 2005 Corruption Index   [10/20/05]

This year's ranking of nations in terms of how they are perceived vis-a-vis dishonesty is out, and there are few changes from previous years since this is a cultural measurement and doesn't alter quickly. The squeaky-clean Scandinavian countries remain clustered at the top while Bangladesh is again in the basement. The color-coded map shows a lot of contrast between the US (#17) and Mexico (#65, a shared ranking) and indicates generally that honesty in the public sphere is a creation of western civilization.
    In addition, corruption keeps the poor down and prevents their climbing up the economic ladder, according to the study's authors.

"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," said Transparency International Chairman Peter Eigen. "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery. Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real difference in freeing people from poverty."

•   •   •  

Toy Pig Climbdown   [10/20/05]
This response is reassuring that sanity in Britain has not been entirely lost in the PC juggernaut of appeasement to cranky Muslims. Remember that a miffed Muslim (is there any other kind?) had complained that co-workers had pig items in their cubicles, such as Piglet tissue boxes and Porky toys.

Race equality rules are being reviewed at Dudley Council after workers were told to remove toy pigs from desks because they offended a Muslim staff member.
    Council leaders say they will not accept "extreme forms of political correctness". Last month the Express & Star revealed how staff in the council's benefits department were told to remove a series of toy pigs sent as a promotion, as well as pig imagery, from their desks.

•   •   •  

State's kids rate low on reading test   [10/20/05]
The news on California reading scores is familiar, given the increasing numbers of non-English-speaking children. The national map indicates graphically how high-immigration states suffer from poor reading scores. The state seems determined to make Mississippi look good.

California has been unable to raise students' reading scores from near the bottom nationally despite a decade of trying, including overhauling the way children are taught to read.
    The 2005 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, released Wednesday, show that California's fourth-graders scored an average of 207 out of 500 points on a reading test last spring -- tying for next-to-last place with students in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico and falling well below the national average of 217. Only fourth-graders in Mississippi and Washington, D.C., scored lower. [...]
    [State schools chief Jack O'Connell] said California had the nation's highest proportion of English learners, which can bring reading scores down. About one in every four California students is an English learner. The highest scorers in the country -- Vermont and New Hampshire among the fourth-graders, and Massachusetts among eighth-graders -- have relatively few students learning the language.
    In addition, only a sampling of students in each state takes the test, and while California excused about 12 percent of its English learners, O'Connell said Texas excused 37.5 percent and New York 29 percent.

•   •   •  

Turkish backing for honour crimes   [10/19/05]
Hopefully the EU bureaucrats will notice this item as further proof of irreconcilable cultural differences between westerners and Turks and discard the idiot idea of welcoming Turkey into the European Union.

A survey by a university in Turkey has shown almost 40% support for the practice of "honour killing".
    The results come days after a court in Istanbul gave a life sentence for the murder of a girl by her brothers for giving birth to a child out of wedlock.
    Turkish law, which used to be lenient on "honour crimes", was heavily revised as part of the country's preparation for EU accession proceedings.

•   •   •  

China and Mexico Bury the Hatchet   [10/18/05]
Remember when GW Bush was calling Mexico America's very best friend? That was before 9/11, and since then Washington has had to at least appear interested in border security. As a result, Mexico's demands for an open border have gone unmet. One assumes its latest gambit in cozying up to Red China is to indicate the Mexi's pique, as well as to surrender in terms of ever creating a viable manufacturing economy, which Mexicans apparently imagined would magically appear after NAFTA without any effort on their part.
    While the whole article is worth a read, a couple interesting items appear in the lower paragraphs:

Even with increased domestic investment, Mexico's oil industry faces severe problems. Most of the country's oil comes from one field, Cantarell in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, the country lacks diversification and is vulnerable to sudden fluctuations in production. Moreover, some experts have predicted that without further discoveries, oil will run out in approximately 11 years. Making matters more urgent, the Mexican government relies heavily on energy revenues to drive the national economy. [...]
    Along with Venezuela and Cuba, China has made Mexico an important part of coordinated Latin American strategy sending an unmistakable signal to Washington that it plans to set up shop in America's backyard. Washington should be concerned about the possibility that Mexico may one day perceive China as an ally comparable to the U.S. As events unfold, it would be wise to remember the words of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin who stated, "The road to America is through Mexico."

•   •   •  

Europe under Siege   [10/18/05]
Daniel Pipes' description of the increasing immigration anarchy in Europe sounds a lot like The Camp of the Saints, a 1973 book published in France which imagined a future immigrant invasion of Europe of entire shiploads of foreigners arriving. Today's numbers are similarly huge.

The typical African migrant travels across the Sahara desert to reach the Mediterranean coast, where he idles nearby until the right moment for a run to Spanish territory. "We were just tired of living in the forest," explained a young man from Guinea-Bissau. "There was nothing to eat, there was nothing to drink."
    In mid-September, the Africans began assaulting the frontier en masse. Deploying crude ladders made of branches, they used their weight to bring the fences down in places. As one of them put it, "We go in a group and all jump at once. We know that some will get through, that others will be injured and others may die, but we have to get through, whatever the cost."
    The tactic works. When over 1,000 persons tried to enter Melilla at a single go in September, an estimated 300 succeeded. In early October, 650 persons ran for the fence and 350 are said to have made it. "There were just too many of us" to be stopped, observed one Malian. An estimated 30,000 more Africans await their turn.
    The confrontation can resemble a pitched battle. The Africans throw rocks at the security forces, which respond with bayonets, shotguns, and rubber bullets. The assaults left about a dozen Africans dead, some trampled in the rush to Spanish territory, others shot by Moroccan police.

•   •   •  

Drug Cartels Battle Keeps Tourists Out of City   [10/18/05]
Here's an update from Nuevo Laredo, where two drug cartels have been battling for months over territory, with the result being the destruction of the tourist economy of the city.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- A violent war between two powerful drug cartels over control of a lucrative trade route for Mexican cocaine and marijuana bound for the United States has turned many Americans away from Nuevo Laredo and nearly gutted the city's tourist economy.
    Once a bustling shopping center for visitors to southern Texas, this Mexican border city of 300,000 on the edge of the Rio Grande has seen a wave of killings that has taken 135 lives this year -- including the police chief, a city council member and 13 police officers.

•   •   •  

Dutch virtue of tolerance under strain   [10/18/05]
Europeans continue to question multiculturalism and wonder about their own national identities in the newly diverse EU. Somali refugee turned Dutch Member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali remains one of the most forthright cultural critics. She still lives at a secret residence and has an armed guard because of the death threats against her from Muslim extremists.

"All of Europe is in a state of denial," she argued. "It thinks these killings will go away, but they will not. The Holy Book says infidels must be destroyed."
    She continued: "Osama bin Laden is a puritan Muslim. That is why he keeps insisting on the Koran. Islam is not a religion of peace, or only of peace with other Muslims.
    "We should acknowledge that it's a very violent religion, say, yes, you are right, instead of pretending, like Bush, that this violence is not true Islam. And then we should encourage Muslims to say that they will remain Muslims, but reject those verses incompatible with human rights, with a decent coexistence between men and women. We should demand an Islamic Reformation."

•   •   •  

L.A. Schools Face a Fight for Bond Issue   [10/17/05]
We hear billions of dollars chatted about so often in the media that we may easily become immune from grasping the amount of money involved. In this case, a one-county school district is flogging a $3.9 billion bond (loan) for building construction and repair, a truly mind-boggling number. By comparison, a recent state budget for Vermont was $1.03 billion.
    Of course, this is Los Angeles County and the reason so much building is needed is immigration and the resulting population explosion from high fertility immigrants.

With little time and money, the Los Angeles school district is engaged in its toughest bond campaign yet as it seeks voter approval for a fourth multibillion-dollar school construction measure. [...]
    Scheduled for completion in 2012, the project calls for an estimated 160 new schools and extensive renovations to others that will provide enough desk space to end involuntary busing for students and reliance on year-round multitrack calendars. So far, L.A. Unified has opened 46 new schools and made repairs at hundreds of older campuses.
    The bond would increase taxes an average of $26.71 per $100,000 of assessed residential and commercial property value. The previous three school construction bond issues together have raised taxes about $85 for every $100,000 of assessed property value.
    About 40% of the proceeds would be spent building a final round of about 25 elementary schools, many of them in South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. A similar amount would be spent on repairs to existing schools.
    Romer pushed strongly to place the bond on the special election ballot.
    Although much of the $9.5 billion from the previous three bonds has not yet been spent, Romer and district facilities officials said the money has been allocated and that Measure Y is needed to keep the construction project on schedule.

•   •   •  

Dutch to hear Muslim rights case   [10/17/05]
Here's a twist on the Islamic clothing brouhaha in the Netherlands: a Muslim woman was denied a job because she wouldn't wear a headscarf and she has complained to a government agency.

Samira Haddad's case before the Equal Opportunities Commission is the first of its kind. It focuses on the obligation for Muslim teachers to wear a headscarf, while their non-Muslim colleagues do not have to.
    Samira Haddad was turned down for a post as Arabic teacher at the prestigious Islamic College in Amsterdam because she refuses to wear a headscarf.
    She claims the college is discriminating between Muslim and non-Muslim staff. Under Dutch law all employees must be treated equally in religious institutions.
    The debate on Muslim clothing in the Netherlands is heating up. The government wants to ban the burqa in certain places, including schools.

•   •   •  

Deportation often an empty threat, as illegal immigration rises   [10/17/05]
The government's weakness in deporting illegal aliens has resulted in a serious escalation in the number of OTMs.

U.S. Border Patrol officers arrested 120 percent more illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico this year than last. This is four times the number arrested in 2002. Total arrests increased by 2 percent from last year.
    To handle the crowding, the Department of Homeland Security has turned to expedited removals. This procedure allows non-Mexican and non-Canadian illegal immigrants to be deported without a judicial hearing. In 2004, expedited removals were expanded from ports, airports and other official points of entry to anywhere on U.S. soil within 100 miles of the border.

•   •   •  

Migrant workers on Gulf Coast face exploitation   [10/17/05]
Nouveau slavery is proceeding apace, with its latest beachhead being the exploitation zone in Louisiana created by the recent hurricanes and lawless economic rules set by the President.

"There's not any housing, even for the people who are from there," said Tirso Moreno, director of the Farmworker Association of Florida, who toured coastal Mississippi to assess working conditions. "Some labor contractors will bring our people up for two or three weeks of work and then leave them there. Sometimes they are paid too little and sometimes not at all. There's nothing they can do to fight it."

•   •   •  

Where it's booming   [10/17/05]
Real estate is one of the areas where America's demographic earthquake is reflected most clearly. Watts was once an iconic black community, practically a west coast Harlem. But now Watts is majority hispanic because of black flight to escape the invaders.

In today's Watts, Latinos make up the majority. U.S. Census Bureau figures show they are taking the place of African Americans leaving Los Angeles for the Inland Empire, Palmdale, Lancaster and the southern United States. Although some blacks are buying homes in Watts, most of those who turn out looking on weekends are Latino.
    At a recent open house in an elegant two-bedroom home on East 93rd Street, Jeanette Williams smiled at a prospective buyer and handed over her cellphone. Because Williams, an agent for Century 21 Award, does not speak Spanish, she depends on an agent back at the office to translate. Nine out of 10 of her clients are Latino.

•   •   •  

Gang rapist's attacks unavoidable, says lawyer   [10/16/05]
More news of diversity and how it affects women, this from Australia.

A violent gang rapist should have been given a lesser sentence partly because he was a "cultural time bomb" whose attacks were inevitable, as he had emigrated from a country with traditional views of women, his barrister has argued.
    MSK, who, with his three Pakistani brothers, raped several girls at their Ashfield family home over six months in 2002, was affected by "cultural conditioning ... in the context of intoxification", Stephen Odgers, SC, told the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.

•   •   •  

Holland fears killings over ban on burqa   [10/16/05]
If you want to put your life at risk, then tick off the religion of peace. The Netherlands Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk may have gotten her name put on an Islamic death list for suggesting that burqas might be banned in Holland.

HOLLAND'S Muslims have responded with outrage to government proposals to ban the burqa, and there are fears that Rita Verdonk, the minister behind the move, will be added to a list of "enemies of Islam" targeted for assassination.
    The country was on high alert yesterday after talk of a burqa ban coincided with the arrest of a group suspected of planning to murder two politicians.
    Verdonk, known as "Iron Rita" for her hardline immigration policies, has been accused by Muslim groups of pandering to the far right by demanding an investigation into whether Holland should become the first European country to prohibit the burqa, a covering worn by some Muslim women that leaves only a strip of gauze for the eyes.
    "A ban in certain circumstances seems quite sensible," said a spokeswoman for Verdonk, who is minister of integration and immigration.

•   •   •  

Mosque Madness   [10/15/05]
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is a rare politician who not only understands the Islamofascist threat, but has been fearless in talking about it. Naturally, the politically correct far left cares more about some Mooslim's feeling getting hurt than the safety of American citizens.

ROMNEY'S SPEECH was a plea for the United States to begin directing more resources toward terror prevention. His comments regarding radical mosques and foreign students were illustrations of the kind of areas where those resources could be directed. Nowhere in his speech, or in subsequent comments, did he suggest that wire-tapping laws or other surveillance statutes be altered to allow increased scrutiny of mosques.
    Nonetheless, Romney's comments were deemed insufficiently sensitive and impermissibly candid.
    The Boston Globe started the ball rolling by headlining its account: "Wiretap Mosques, Romney Suggests."

•   •   •  

Dutch police make terror arrests   [10/14/05]
Renewed threats against members of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders have led to seven arrests of Islamic extremists in the Hague.

Among those held on Friday was Samir Azzouz, a Dutch teenager of Moroccan origin who had been acquitted in April of plotting attacks on Amsterdam airport, government buildings and a nuclear reactor.
    "He is suspected of preparing attacks, together with other persons, on several politicians and government buildings," the prosecutor's office said on Friday.

•   •   •  

Frist to take on border bill first   [10/14/05]
Sounds like it's time to get serious about making phone calls to Congress and sending faxes through NumbersUSA. The other side will be sharpening its knives.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday that the Senate will tackle border security and interior immigration enforcement before turning to the broader question of immigration reforms and a guest-worker program.
    "It is a separate issue, but it's one that people understand," the Tennessee Republican said of border security. "It's an immediate issue, it needs to be addressed more aggressively, we need to do that."
    Speaking with The Washington Times by telephone after a helicopter tour yesterday of 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, Mr. Frist said he does not know whether an immigration bill can pass this year because of a heavy workload, but the Senate will pass a bill before adjourning next year.
    He said the next immigration bill should address border security and could cover interior enforcement as well.
    As majority leader, he controls the floor schedule of the Senate, and his decision will please many conservatives, who are calling for enforcement first. But it puts him at odds with President Bush and immigration rights advocates, who have said they want action on a broader guest-worker program this year.
    His position on tackling enforcement first is similar to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who says the government must prove to voters that it can enforce immigration laws before Congress turns to a guest-worker plan.

•   •   •  

Dutch unveil the toughest face in Europe with a ban on the burka   [10/13/05]
Government has been slow to act against the Islamic fascism threat in the Netherlands, where the Amsterdam assassination of artist Theo van Gogh in 2004 focused national attention, but this action will at least emphasize assimilation to the sons of Allah. And more than being merely symbolic, banning the all-encompassing garment will have a positive anti-terrorism effect, since bombs and such are so easily hidden under the human tent.

THE Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to ban the burka, under government proposals that would bring in some of the toughest curbs on Muslim clothing in the world.
    The country's hardline Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, known as the Iron Lady for her series of tough anti-immigration measures, told Parliament that she was going to investigate where and when the burka should be banned. The burka, traditional clothing in some Islamic societies, covers a woman's face and body, leaving only a strip of gauze for the eyes.
    Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the "time of cosy tea-drinking" with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

•   •   •  

Ethiopia: Domestic violence rampant, says UNFPA   [10/13/05]
Effective oppression means convincing victims that their pain is good for them.

ADDIS ABABA, 12 October (IRIN) - Domestic violence is so rampant in Ethiopia that nine out of ten women think their husbands are justified in beating them, a UN report released on Wednesday said.
    The report, compiled by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said the women believed it was in order to be punished, especially when a wife went out without telling her spouse, neglected the children or prepared food badly.
    "Violence against women has long been shrouded in a culture of silence," Monique Rakotomalala, the UNFPA representative in Ethiopia, said at the launch of a report titled: "State of the World's Population, the Promise of Equality".
    The report focuses on the plight of women across the globe. It found that in Egypt, 94 percent of women thought it was acceptable to be beaten, as did 91 percent in Zambia.

•   •   •  

As locals struggle, migrants find work in New Orleans   [10/12/05]
The agony for New Orleans' poor just keeps on piling on. It's bad enough that much of their beautiful city has been destroyed and thousands of homes will have to be bulldozed. Residents will not even be given preference over illegal aliens for decent paying jobs rebuilding the city.
    If this country cared at all about the welfare of its citizens, those illegal alien workers would be given their one-way tickets south yesterday. Instead, citizens are shafted so that exploitable foreigners may work.

New Orleans -- Two weeks ago, Geremias Lopez was picking grapes near Bakersfield, but when he saw an advertisement on Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language television network, for work on the Gulf Coast, he and a friend called the 1-800 number flashing on the screen and were soon aboard a Greyhound bus headed east.
    Lopez and the 80-some other Mexican and Honduran immigrants in his crew are now earning $100 a day covering torn and mangled roofs with blue tarps until the roofs can be re-shingled and restored to some semblance of what they looked like before Hurricane Katrina struck six weeks ago.

•   •   •  

Fear of Funning   [10/12/05]
What is it about fascism and fun? No totalitarians anywhere, any time have ever tolerated people having a good time and enjoying their brief span on this earth. Michael Ledeen reflects upon the latest version, Islamo-fascism:

They want good little Muslim androids, who will accept the preposterous belief that all knowledge was acquired several centuries ago and that man's only worthwhile intellectual activity is to imbibe that knowledge in order to recite it when called for.
    The most devastating critique of such a system is laughter, which the leaders of the terror regimes can not and dare not tolerate. Laughter bespeaks fun, and fun is totally forbidden. Remember the Taliban, from whose caves Osama bin Laden and his merry band of killers emerged about ten years ago? They not only locked away all the women, they banned music. Some French film producer went all over Afghanistan, filming eerie landscapes featuring poles driven into the ground, wrapped with audio tape. The only sound was the rustling of the tape in the wind. This was the country in which Osama et al. found the perfect atmosphere for their preparations for the jihad.
    In like manner, the Saudi religious police, a couple of years ago, refused to let female students escape from a burning building because they were improperly dressed. They burned to death. In like manner, the mullahs are increasing the power of the basij, their own religious police, to enforce the dress code on women and to prevent couples and groups from having fun. The tragicomic efforts of the terror masters to eliminate fun from public life tells us everything we need to know about the kind of world they will inflict on those whom they defeat in combat.

•   •   •  

Villaraigosa Aims to Make Most of 'Latino Mayor' Role   [10/12/05]
Los Angeles' hispanic mayor has been milking his office for all it's worth in terms of positive media pieces about himself. He has also been clear that making his city Mexican remains numero uno:

But the small details and unscripted asides that surrounded his campaign and have seeped into his administration show the subtle ways in which Villaraigosa chooses to mediate his ethnic identity.
    Mayoral news conferences now are entirely bilingual, and frequently the Spanish-language press leads the questioning. The mayor repeats his points in both languages. Villaraigosa still makes quips about his own halting Spanish, a symptom of the mostly English upbringing he shares with countless bicultural Latinos in Southern California.
    Every so often, his office's statements refer to his historic win. A Sept. 30 statement expressing admiration for Constance Baker Motley, the first African American female federal judge, who died Sept. 28, starts: "As the first Latino Mayor of Los Angeles in over 130 years ... "

•   •   •  

American identity: Groups protest controversial lecturer   [10/11/05]
The Aztlan moonbats were out in College Station Texas to protest the distinguished Harvard scholar Samuel Huntington (who presciently introduced the concept of the clash of civilizations years before 9/11). It's amusing that part (much?) of the rally was in Spanish, protesting that Huntington says hispanics aren't assimilating.

Roughly 200 people stood in front of the Bush Presidential Conference Center on Monday evening, hoisting pickets and chanting in a mixture of English and Spanish for Harvard professor Samuel Huntington to go home.

•   •   •  

The Crushing Economic Burden of Illegal Immigration   [10/11/05]
Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist is an accountant in his normal life, so he knows a thing or two about number crunching.

I've tried to figure out the costs since I have this tax background. What is the cost to each of us as taxpayers to support 30 million illegal aliens, many of whom are working in the underground economy and not contributing to the tax system? And yet they're using the system that bona fide taxpayers provide and pay for.
    In California alone it's at least $1,500 per taxpayer, depending upon what tax bracket you're in. If, of course, you're making over $300,000-$400,000 a year, then you're probably paying about $12,000 a year in support payments for the illegal alien benefit programs. If you're making only $30,000 a year, you're probably only paying about $200. But roughly it averages out to at least $1,500, and maybe $1,800, per taxpayer in California ... and that's just for California benefits.
    Let's talk about the total cost. I had to make my own estimate, since the government will not give me these numbers, nor does it care to calculate them. It also doesn't care even to determine how many people in the United States are murdered by illegal aliens — I've tried to get that information, too; it doesn't exist.
    I've come up with my own numbers. And I will stand by these numbers. The annual gross cost to U.S. taxpayers to provide schooling, hospitalization, and whatever plethoric benefits are out there for the 30 million illegal aliens is approximately $400 billion per year funded by bona fide U.S. taxpayers. That's $400 billion per year and going up.

•   •   •  

Tifton arrest reflect chasm   [10/11/05]
The whole bash-whitey-through-immigration thing hasn't quite worked out as planned. The "rainbow coaltion" types have imagined colorful people aligned against the evil palefaces. But human nature has trumped marxism, and rather than joining hands, the oppressed minorities hate each other.
    Six hispanics were recent murdered in Tifton, Georgia, and the accused are blacks.

Hispanics are arriving in South Georgia just as agricultural and factory jobs are disappearing. The influx has caused a new wrinkle in the always difficult issue of race relations in the South.
    Savanah Marin, a Hispanic woman born in the United States who lives in Tifton, said Hispanics have been targeted with both violence and accusations.
    "We hear that we are invading their country; there's a lot of prejudice in South Georgia," she said.
    Much of it, she said, comes from those who themselves have been victims: African-Americans.

•   •   •  

Bears eat keeper who took their bile   [10/11/05]
One of the worst animal cruelties anywhere is the Chinese practice of removing gall bladder fluid from the live creatures as they are held immobile in cages. In this case, the bears won a round.

The bile is extracted in an excruciatingly painful process which involves slicing into the animal's flesh and "milking" the substance with a tube.

•   •   •  

Day Laborer Battle Runs Outside Home Depot   [10/11/05]
It's bad enough that blatant lawbreaking is taking place as illegal aliens openly flack themselves to work under the table. But misogynous Mexicans routinely harass women and girls as if that were acceptable behavior.

"They whistle at 12- and 13-year-old girls on the way to school," Mr. Pedraza said. "They urinate in back of the store. They throw trash on the sidewalk. Maybe it's just a few of the guys who do it, but it upsets a lot of the neighbors."

•   •   •  

Spanish amnesty worsened immigrant problem - Germany   [10/10/05]
Sometimes mistakes made by others are more easily recognized than our own. President Bush is calling for a massive amnesty (although he avoids that word) despite all evidence that such an enticement only compels more foreigners to come.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Spanish amnesty for illegal immigrants has drawn more of them to Europe and unilateral policies should be abandoned in favour of joint international solutions, Germany's Interior Minister said on Sunday.
    Europe may be "overwhelmed" by migrants if the economic and social gap between it and impoverished Africa continued to widen rapidly, Interior Minister Otto Schily warned, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
    "The pressure on Europe from migrants will increase so dramatically that we will be totally overwhelmed," the paper quoted him as saying. "Not even three- or five-deep layers of fencing will prevent it."

•   •   •  

Troopers train to catch illegal immigrants   [10/10/05]
Alabama is among the states leading the way on immigration enforcement.

Francisco Vazquez doesn't like driving on the interstate at night.
    There are too many state police officers, he said, and as an illegal immigrant, he fears a traffic ticket could turn into a trip back to Mexico.
    Civil rights activists say his fears are justified. The state will more than double the number of troopers who have the authority to arrest illegal immigrants, the Associated Press reported this week.
    Gov. Bob Riley said 25 state troopers would undergo federal immigration law enforcement training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston.
    After completing the five-week training course in mid-November, they will join 21 others who went through the special training in 2003.
    Alabama, Florida and Arkansas are the only states with the authority to use troopers as federal immigration enforcement officers.
    For Vazquez, who already avoids driving long distances and stays within the speed limit, that's a frightening prospect.
    "Their job is traffic laws not immigration," said Vazquez, who came to America four years ago and lives in the tri-county region. "I never drink and drive, but it's still real scary to think they can pull you over and send you back to Mexico (and) you lose every thing that you've earned in this country. We come here with nothing. They should look for the real criminals."

•   •   •  

Groups concerned about rape problem in Hmong community   [10/9/05]
The promoters of diversity don't mention the deviant and illegal sexual practices of newcomers, such as Hmong who often engage in polygamy and child marriage. In addition, the gang rape of young girls is a growing problem in the Hmong community.

Scores of Hmong girls in Minnesota - some not yet in their teens - have been raped or forced into prostitution over the past several years, and many of their attackers are gang members who go unpunished because shame keeps their victims from coming forward, the Star Tribune reported in its Sunday edition.
    "It's a huge problem," said St. Paul Police Sgt. Richard Straka, who wrote an article on the topic for an FBI publication in 2003.

•   •   •  

French Muslim dies in mosque during exorcism   [10/9/05]
From France, a diversity moment of the sort you don't see every day...

One of the suspects stood with his feet on the victim's throat and lower belly, while the three other suspects held the victim down while reciting verses from the Koran, the source said.
    Four men suspected of killing a French Muslim while trying to drive evil spirits out of him at a Paris mosque will be brought before a judge to face possible charges on Friday, a judicial source said.
    The man, who was about 30 years old and complained of stomach pains, apparently suffocated when one of the suspects, claiming to help him, stood with his feet on the victim's throat and lower belly, the source said. The three other suspects held the victim down while reciting verses from the Koran, the source added.

•   •   •  

The GOP's Border Guard   [10/9/05]
Columnist George Will is no friend of border enforcement and sovereignty, but he knows an emerging issue when he sees one, and recognizes Rep. Tom Tancredo as a man with a purpose.

[Tancredo] says that "The Disuniting of America," a 1992 book by one of liberalism's eminent intellectuals, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., alerted him to the dangers of the "cult of multiculturalism." Today's immigrants, he says, do not feel what his grandfather did -- "pressure to assimilate." Because most come from nearby countries in this hemisphere, they do not experience what is called the "psychological guillotine" of being severed from their old country by distance and the difficulty of transoceanic travel.
    Elected in 1998, Tancredo is consistently obstreperous, meaning conservative as Republicans used to understand that. He voted against President Bush's prescription drug entitlement because he says we can't afford it, against Bush's education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act, because it is expands federal infringement of state responsibilities, and against the recent $50 billion appropriation for recovery from Hurricane Katrina because of insufficient accountability -- "Not one person on the [House] floor could tell you what it was being spent for." His proposal for paying for Katrina? "Sell 15 percent of all federal land." But not, he says temperately, Yellowstone Park.

•   •   •  

Illegal immigrants leave their mark on desert   [10/9/05]
The trash left by millions of illegal aliens have ruined the Arizona landscape for decades to come.

There are places along the Mexico border in Arizona where the desert floor is hidden by refuse left behind by people crossing the border.
    These are the signs of illegal immigration, found in heaps at camps, along well-worn paths that run through the dry desert creekbeds and ever closer to Tucson, 50 miles northeast.
    "It would be an understatement to say parts of the desert have been trashed," said Gail Aschenbrenner, spokeswoman for the 1.7 million-acre Coronado National Forest, which shares 60 miles of border with Sonora, Mexico.
    "It's like collateral damage," said Gary Nabhan, director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who has studied southern Arizona desert ecology.
    Illegal immigrants drop an average of 6 to 8 pounds of waste during their journey, according to government estimates. With an estimated 1 million people crossing into Arizona each year, that amounts to 4,000 tons of garbage.

•   •   •  

Rep. Rosen questions refugee program   [10/9/05]
Ralph Rosen of New Hampshire is a rare legislator to question the sacred cow program of refugees. Under it, the most culturally inappropriate groups (e.g. FGM-practicing Somalis, polygamist Hmong, etc.) are resettled in this country. The American people don't want these groups dumped in their communities, but the State Department finds refugees a useful pawn to play in its various dealings with foreign governments.
    In addition, church and other resettling agencies make a pile of money from the government. And the more unsuitable the culture, the more the refugees require well paid minders to show them the ropes.

Last month officials from the Concord-based Lutheran Social Services of Northern New England confirmed that Laconia is among a handful of New Hampshire cities slated as a resettlement destination for dozens of Meskhetian Turks. The U.S. State Department gave the displaced Eurasian people refugee status as a result of ethnic violence and discrimination in Georgia and Uzbekistan.
    Ann Dancy of Lutheran Social Services said the people are expected to be gradually moved into the city over the next year as part of a resettlement program that has seen Laconia receiving refugees from all over the world over the past decade.
    The federal government provides approximately $400 per refugee to help with the initial cost of housing, furniture and food, with the Lutheran group providing additional money through matching grants. Refugees are immediately eligible for many federal programs that immigrants have no access to, such as Medicaid.
    However, residents and officials have expressed concern on how their resettlement will impact local taxpayers as the city and school system will incur costs as a result of their resettlement here.

•   •   •  

Yuma sheriff gets armored car to patrol border   [10/8/05]
Here's another marker about how dangerous the border area has become because of Washington's irresponsibility: a mere automobile is not safe enough for law officers in the war zone.

Yuma County sheriff's deputies will now be patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border in a surplus British military armored personnel carrier.
    The $18,000, nine-ton, six-wheeled vehicle is needed because of increased attacks against deputies and U.S. Border Patrol agents by drug and migrant smugglers, sheriff's and patrol officials said. The agencies frequently work together. [...]
    Law enforcement officers in the border region are increasingly subject to rock throwing, gunfire and being rammed by fleeing vehicles.
    In the first six months of 2005, 167 assaults, 104 rock throwing incidents and six cases of officers targeted by gunfire have been documented by the agencies in the Yuma region, sheriff's Maj. Leon Wilmot said.

•   •   •  

Big Easy Cleanup a Foreign Affair   [10/8/05]
As predicted, the rebuilding of New Orleans is lining the pockets of non-American workers, many of whom are illegal aliens.

Many of those engaged in the huge cleanup and reconstruction effort here -- nobody has an exact count -- are immigrants, both legal and illegal, from Mexico and Central America.
    Meanwhile, as many as 80,000 New Orleanians sit idle in shelters around the country. They are out of work, homeless and destitute.
    That irks some civic and union leaders.
    "I've got nothing against our Hispanic brothers, but we have a whole lot of skilled laborers in shelters that could be doing this work," said Oliver Thomas, president of the City Council. "We could put a whole lot of money in the pockets of New Orleanians by doing this reconstruction work."

•   •   •  

Sierra Club director criticized   [10/7/05]
This story is not news, since it was mentioned here on 9/20, but LTG did not then have a photo of the sign used in the demonstration protesting the Sierra Club's withdrawal from responsible environmentalism, apparently at the behest of a rich Wall Street donor.

The LA Times reported in 2004 ("The Man behind the Land", 10/27/04) that Executive Director Carl Pope received over $100 million from Los Angeles investor David Gelbaum with the understanding that the Sierra Club would not speak against immoderate immigration.

But [Gelbaum] said Pope long had known where he stood on the contentious issue. "I did tell Carl Pope in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me."

•   •   •  

The Week in Mexico   [10/7/05]
In the border area, Mexican patients are normally put in ambulances and sent north to American hospitals (dozens of which have gone bankrupt because of treating illegal alien patients), but there are not enough live bodies for the Mexico medical school. Would it be rude to suggest that border-region Mexican patients be sent south to be treated by Mexican doctors?

Robotic patients: Faced with a growing number of medical students and few training hospitals, the National Autonomous University of Mexico is turning to robotic patients to better train future doctors, Reuters reported. On Monday, the Mexico City university opened the world's largest robotic hospital, where medical students practice such procedures as delivering a baby from a robotic dummy and injecting the arm of a plastic toddler. The robots are dummies complete with mechanical organs, synthetic blood and mechanical breathing systems.

•   •   •  

Arabian Sex Tourism   [10/7/05]
Daniel Pipes nails Muslim hypocrisy about sex, noting that Islam conveniently permits "temporary marriage" so that even the most depraved sex act is seen as okay in the eyes of Allah as long as the whoring is done in the proper Islamic style.

The Arabs usually "marry" the girls for short periods, sometimes just a single night. In fact, Wajihuddin reports, marriage and divorce formalities are often prepared at the same time, thereby expediting the process for all involved. Akhileshwari notes that "their girl children are available for as little as 5,000 rupees to satisfy the lust of doddering old Arab men." Five thousand rupees, by the way, equals just a bit over US$100.
    An Indian television program recently reported on a show-casing of eight prospective brides, most of them minors, at which they were offered up to their Arab suitors. "It resembled a brothel. The girls were paraded before the Arab who would lift the girls' burqa, run his fingers through their hair, gaze at their figures and converse through an interpreter," recalls one of Nishat's assistants. [...]
    Sunita Krishnan, head of an anti human-trafficking organization, Prajwala, makes the only too-obvious point that girl children are not valued. "If a girl child is sold or her life ruined, it is not a national loss, that's why this is a non-issue, both for community and to society."

•   •   •  

As Illegal Workers Hit Suburbs, Politicians Scramble to Respond   [10/7/05]
Elected officials at the local level have long complained that they are at the mercy of Washington's inattention to the border. This complaint is true to some degree, but policies like sanctuary reveal that cities and states do a great deal to attract or repel illegal immigrants. This survey-style article from the New York Times shows that the attitude of denial about local responsibility is changing, as the crisis worsens and citizens demand something be done.

Though municipal officials have no statutory control over immigration, a rising population of illegal immigrants in suburban communities - from Farmingville, N.Y., to Danbury, Conn.; Herndon, Va., to suburban South Salt Lake City, Utah - has prompted some of those officials to attack the problem with the limited means at their disposal. In the process, they have won and lost political support; grappled with issues beyond their usual bailiwicks; and, whether intentionally or not, begun incorporating immigration into the calculus of local politics.
    Steve Levy, the Democratic county executive in Suffolk County, sent police officers to help shut down single-family houses crammed with 40 and 50 immigrant workers in Farmingville, a hamlet that has become synonymous with the conflict between day laborers and suburban homeowners. His move rankled many Hispanics, some of whom have labeled him as racist, but his popularity in mostly white Suffolk County has risen.
    Mark Boughton, the moderate Republican mayor of Danbury, Conn., set off a fiery debate this year by calling for state troopers to enforce immigration laws, and now finds himself labeled as anti-immigrant and embraced by some conservative Web sites.

•   •   •  

Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript, Oct. 5   [10/6/05]
The shocking security breach of illegal aliens working in a Fort Bragg Special Operations language school was the lead story on the CNN news show Wednesday.

Two people from Indonesia and a man from Senegal who taught foreign language to Army Special Operations forces were arrested Tuesday, charged with using false immigration papers. According to affidavits, the Indonesians were already facing deportation when they used false documents to gain employment. They were hired by a Florida firm that had a five-year, $50 million contract to provide language instructors to Special Operations units.
    The Army says the instructors had no access to sensitive information, and there is no indication of terrorist involvement. But immigration officials worry illegal workers at military sites could be blackmailed by terrorists for what they do know: identities of military personnel, and layouts of sensitive facilities.

•   •   •  

Britain's War on Pigs   [10/6/05]
Of course, it's not real pigs that are the problem in this case, it's the cultural enjoyment we westerners derive from amusing representations like Porky and Piglet. One cranky Muslim in Britain got his nose out of joint over someone's office cubicle pig items, and a porcine jihad has resulted.
    What's sad is that the English have submitted in cultural appeasement in most cases. So Muslims keep pushing. Modern totalitarians have found it efficacious to practice "salami tactics" in which small slices are relentlessly carved off. No individual slice appears to be a proper casus belli, but the effect of accumulated capitulations is surrender.
    Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org has a few choice remarks:

Pigs are disappearing all over England, but not because of some porcine variant of Mad Cow Disease: rather, the most implacable foe of the swine is turning out to be multiculturalism.
    The latest assault came in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, where employees were told that they were no longer allowed to have any representations of pigs at their desks. Some had little porcine porcelain figurines. Others had toys or calendars of cute little pigs. One had a tissue box depicting Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. All of this had to go, not because of new some new anti-kitsch ordinance, but because Muslims might be offended — particularly now, what with Ramadan beginning. How could a pious Muslim in the Dudley Council, West Midlands benefits department redouble his efforts to conform his life to the will of Allah with all these ... pigs staring him in the face? It was an insult!
    This was not the first anti-pig initiative in Britain. In Derby, Muslims took offense at plans to restore the statue of the Florentine Boar, which had stood in the Derby Park for over a hundred years before it was decapitated by a German bomb in 1942. Recent plans to rebuild the Boarıs head ran into resistance from local Muslims. Suman Gupta, a local Council member, warned: "If the statue of the boar is put back at the Arboretum I have been told that it will not be there the next day, or at least it won't be in the same condition the next day at least. We should not have the boar because it is offensive to some of the groups in the immediate area." However, after more than 2,000 locals signed petitions in favor of the Boar, local authorities decided to bend to public opinion and go ahead with their original plans to restore the statue.

•   •   •  

Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials   [10/5/05]
For the "better late than never" file, the Senate will soon investigate the widespread dissemination by Saudis of outrageously anti-semitic, anti-Christian and anti-American publications in mosques located in the United States. Freedom House released its shocking report in January of this year, so the Saudi circulation of the extreme wahhabist viewpoint is not exactly news. Still, it's a good thing to shine a Senatorial light on these well funded fifth columnists.

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.
    The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.
    A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam.
    In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee - of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.
    The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents." The legislation is highly critical of the House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology. As part of the Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.

•   •   •  

Immigration or Invasion?   [10/5/05]
European blogger Wolfgang Bruno has written one of the better succinct articles on why immoderate immigration is threatening for both America and Europe.

The USA has the most powerful armed forces in the history of mankind. What's the point of that, if millions of people can simply walk across the border and colonize entire regions? Isn't the idea behind a military defense to uphold national integrity and sovereignty? More concerning is the fact that Islamic terrorists are taking advantage of this situation, and bypass increased airport security by entering from Mexico. The lax border control is thus a major security risk, as the terrorists are trying to obtain WMD to smuggle into the country's vast unprotected borders. Legislation developed as a result of the 9/11 Commission called for an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents, but the Bush Administration's 2006 budget asked for just 210 new agents.

•   •   •  

Minutemen arrival chases away smugglers   [10/5/05]
The Minutemen have returned to the southern border and are already having an effect with their large-scale neighborhood watch.

"Congress and the White House need to wake up to the fact that we are here to stay," Mr. Garza said during an interview at the Minuteman group's Falfurrias [Texas] camp. "We intend to be that 800-pound gorilla until they act to restore security on our nation's borders. We want to know when the rule of law [is] going to be reinstated."
    Participants will report to the U.S. Border Patrol but will not detain those attempting to cross illegally into the United States.
    A Marine veteran who served in combat during the Vietnam War, Mr. Garza described the number of posts and patrols here as a "carefully guarded secret" because of pending death threats, including some from the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
    But, he said, the sites were scouted out by senior members of the organization after meetings with local law-enforcement authorities, the Border Patrol and area landowners. He described the senior Minuteman officials who attended the meetings as mostly retired military personnel and retired law-enforcement authorities.

•   •   •  

Turkey: Back to the Future? (Part 1)   [10/5/05]
One of the worst political stupidities occurring in front of our eyes is the gradual acceptance of Turkey into the European Union. One of the reasons is the belief among some Europeans that Muslim Turkey has a history of moderation. Andrew Bostom, editor of The Legacy of Jihad, refutes that misapprehension.

Once again, Turks are storming the heart of Europe. This time, it is not by the sword, but rather in seeking to join the European Union (EU). Once inside the gates, they will gain access to the great cities, wealth, and power of their ancient rivals. Smoothing the way for incorporation of the former would-be conqueror into borderless Europe is an errant belief that Ottoman Turkey was a tolerant multi-cultural civilization. Nothing could be further from the truth.
    Recently, security analyst Frank Gaffney wrote a courageous essay, featured in the Washington Times, urging that Turkey's bid to join the EU be rejected. Gaffney highlighted the Islamic Shari'a-based religious revival under the current Erdogan regime as the keystone to his cogent argument. Despite Gaffney's legitimate concerns regarding the current Erdogan government, he reiterates a common, politically-correct canard which ignores the direct nexus between Erdogan's ideology, and the goals and behaviors of Erdogan's Ottoman ancestors. It is ahistorical to speak of "Ottoman tolerance" as distinct from Erdogan's "Islamism", because the Ottoman Empire expanded via three centuries of devastating jihad campaigns, and the flimsy concept of Ottoman tolerance was, in reality, Ottoman-imposed dhimmitude, under the Shari'a.
    With formal discussions regarding Turkey's potential EU accession currently underway, this three part essay will elaborate on several apposite historical phenomena: Jihad and dhimmitude under the Ottomans, focusing primarily on Asia Minor and Eastern Europe; the failure of the so-called Ottoman Tanzimat reforms to abrogate the system of dhimmitude;  and the dissolution of this Shari'a state whose bloody, convulsive collapse during the first World War included a frank jihad genocide of the Ottoman dhimmi population, once considered most loyal to the Empire, i.e., the Armenians. I believe such an analysis is particularly timely, in light of a December 2004 United Nations Conference which lionized "Ottoman tolerance" as a role model, "... to be adapted even today..." [emphasis added], and Gaffney's reiteration of this profoundly flawed conception, despite his own bold opposition to Turkey's entry into the EU.

•   •   •  

3 Bragg teachers put under arrest   [10/5/05]
How much faith can you have in our national security when illegal aliens from terror-infested countries are allowed access to military bases? Doing extra security checks on foreign-born persons should have been ramped up after 9/11, yet sloppiness has been common.

FORT BRAGG - Three people who taught foreign languages at the Joint Special Operations Command Center at Fort Bragg were arrested on immigration charges, federal officials said Tuesday.
    The suspects from Indonesia and Senegal did not have access to classified material, a JSOC spokeswoman said.
    Two Indonesia natives, Nurkis Qadariah, 34, and Sayf Rimal, 37, were arrested Tuesday and charged with possessing and using false documents, U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said in a prepared statement. [...]
    ICE said the arrests are the latest in its effort to find illegal immigrants working at sensitive sites such as airports and nuclear plants.
    In July, 48 illegal immigrants were arrested at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. In May, ICE agents arrested nine unauthorized immigrants working at a facility in Winston-Salem that refits the Navy's P-3 Orion aircraft.

•   •   •  

Investigators: 14 Farm Laborers Rape Florida Teen   [10/4/05]
This is the side of "diversity" that the MSM doesn't much like to investigate.

IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- Fourteen field laborers broke into an 18-year-old woman's home, dragged her across the street and then took turns raping her, investigators said.
    The Collier County Sheriff's Office said the men, ranging in age from 18 to 56, dragged the woman from her home to another across the street early Saturday. She told deputies they choked her and hit her until she lost consciousness.
    She said that when she awoke, one of the men was pouring alcohol in her mouth. The men then pulled off her pants and each one raped her, she said. [...]
    Each man was charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment and sexual battery by multiple perpetrators. All were in jail without bond Tuesday and could face up to life in prison if convicted. Twelve of the men are from Guatemala, one from Puerto Rico and the other from Mexico.

•   •   •  

Immigration reform helped Latinos, Asians — not blacks   [10/4/05]
The immigrant influx of the last 40 years has put black Americans into the back of the bus once again in terms of economic progress. When immigration was severely curtailed in the 1920s, blacks got a foothold on the economic ladder.

In 1960, blacks accounted for 69 percent of the U.S. minority population.
    By 2004, according to Census Bureau estimates, blacks were only 39 percent of the minority population. Hispanics became the largest minority in 2001.
    "What we have is not a black and white situation. It's black and brown, and white and Asian, and black and Asian, and on it goes," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black writer and commentator who presides over the weekly Los Angeles Urban Roundtable.
    In Los Angeles, as in California, blacks are now the third-largest minority, behind both Latinos and Asians, their ranks of elected officials thinning year by year. Watts, the definitive black ghetto when it exploded in riots in August 1965, long ago became mostly Latino.

•   •   •  

Race fears spark St. George ban   [10/4/05]
You can't make this stuff up. Dhimmitude is reaching new heights in England, where the sons of Allah (and their agents) want the nation's flag to be remade more to their liking.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British prison officers who wore a St. George's Cross tie-pin have been ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol's racist connotations.
    The pins showing the English flag -- which has often raised hackles due to its connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries -- could be "misconstrued," Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said in a section on race in a report on a jail in the northern English city of Wakefield.
    The banner of St. George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims, and later became the national flag of England....

•   •   •  

Green-card quota seen as undercutting security   [10/4/05]
The Washington Times is doing important reporting about wrong-headed priorities in the legal immigration system as well as outright corruption.

Immigration officials said yesterday that every application for a green card is subject to background checks, but union officials said managers' efforts to reduce a backlog of applicants mean adjudicators cut corners and could be letting in the wrong people.
    "The push to reduce the backlog has compromised the integrity of the system," said Kevin Tinker, an official with the National Homeland Security Council (NHSC), a part of the American Federation of Government Employees. "The average adjudicator is not sure whether the decision he's making is the right decision. He doesn't have the time."
    He said he knew of several customer-service centers where adjudicators feel they are "rubber-stamping" applications in order to make performance quotas.

•   •   •  

Immigration Lottery Begins Soon   [10/4/05]
On October 5, millions of people around the world will enter the US visa lottery in hopes of winning one of 55,000 slots designed to increase America's "diversity."
    The diversity visa lottery is known for welcoming terrorists (such as the convicted Detroit resident Karim Koubriti), persons from terrorist nations and criminal cultures (e.g. Somalia which has near universal practice of female genital mutilation, a form of torture), yet it continues to exist.

The U.S. Department of State has announced that registration for the annual Diversity Visa, or DV Lottery, will be held from October 5th to December 4th. The program is designed to bring greater racial and ethnic diversity to the United States. [...]
    John Keeley, from the Center for Immigration Studies, says it is exactly this approach that the United States should discourage.
    "I think the program also really cheapens the notion of immigration to the U.S. This program doesn't have any merits, in terms of saying to an individual immigrant, 'what are your skills sets, what is your education, what talents are you bringing to the United States?' "
    And Mr. Keeley says the United States needs to be particularly careful about who it is letting in.
    "At a time where we are very concerned about the porous nature of our borders, and prosecuting a war on terror globally, the idea that we would say to our immigration bureaucrats here in Washington, you now get to process the claims of 10 million people from around the world, is patently stupid. In a post-9/11 world, we need to know who is coming to the United States and not drawing names out of a hat," said Mr. Keeley.

•   •   •  

© 2005 Brenda Walker All rights reserved.