The Open Borders

Ranan Lurie - Cartoonews International. Best Political Cartoons of the Year - 1996 Edition. Pg 22.

Why the current immigration bill in the Senate is already a loser. It does the same thing as the immigration reform bill that was passed under the Clinton Administration did. It waves a magic wand, in this case the Z-Visa, and turn up to 20 million pumpkins into glass slippers. All it does is push off fixing the problem until sometime in the future while keeping the border open via a lack of adequate barriers.

I bet former President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon of Mexico is all for these open borders. The man his Yale page lauds with: "He pulled the nation out of a financial crisis right at the start of his term and the result was that under his leadership, Mexico experienced its highest five-year period of GDP growth in recent history. At the same time, social programs were allocated an increasing proportion of the federal budget each year, reaching their highest historical share in 2000." back in 1997 warmly supported these open borders at a La Raza soiree in Chicago: "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important - part of it."

This free flow north of Mexico's poor&huddled masses brings down wages in the United States, driving down tax bases even as they increase the burden on those tax bases via medical costs and crime to name two. It also acts a pressure relief valve for Mexico, as the Mexican government suppresses riots it encourages the disaffected to move to the United States - after all the US took half of Mexico so why not take it back. So the impetus for Mexico to reform its political and social structure is diluted as the malcontents move north. Which means Mexico remains a corrupt country for longer where officials and military can be bought along with justice.

Then there is the whole problem of how many jihadists have slipped through and are slipping through via coyotes into the United States via this porous border. Until the southern barriers are reinforced along with penalties for hiring illegals, the Z-Visa is a terrible idea.

Better no immigration bill this year or next versus this travesty that repeats the failures of the previous immigration bill.

The 24/7 Election Cycle

Mark Cullum - Birmingham News. Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 1996 Edition. pg 42

I had been saving this cartoon for an appropriate time. Well today is it. I saw a bumper sticker pushing Fred Thompson for President in 2008. It is a welcome change of pace from the lingering Kerry/Edwards stickers and the W ones also. But come on, he has not even really announced yet. At least have something like Run Fred Run! But this Jeep's sticker bypasses that and goes right to the assumption Fred is running. Hence feeding the never-ending election/re-election cycle we seem to be locked into.

Orange County by Stefy

A friend turned me on to this group. Listen to the lyrics as she wonders where her childhood went and if all the toys she has are worth it.




In case you are tired of Gwen and A-kon on the airwaves, like me.

Star Wars Legacy

I just caught the last 30 minutes of this two hour extravaganza on History Channel. It was amazing. We had the usual allusions to the coal skuttle helmet and Darth Vader. The love of red/black/white between Palpatine and ol'Adolph.

The gamut of names interviewed was interesting. They interviewed Tom Brokaw. Dan Rather. And even Newt Gingrinch. But I think the piece de la resistence was the last politician interviewed, it was none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking about the power of the people.

Yes, you heard me right. Nancy Pelosi was interviewed. She found time to give this interview for the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars but had no time to give General Petreaus a chance for a face to face meeting.

One More Memorial Day Post

143041112-M-0095Z-181U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Brandy L. Guerrero kisses an Iraqi baby waiting to be examined during a humanitarian assistance mission in the village of Ash Shafiyah, Iraq, Nov. 12, 2004. Personnel on the mission provided medical and dental treatment to more than 115 Iraqis. Guerrero is a radio operator with Communications Detachment, Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 11, 11th MEU (Special Operations Capable). (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Chago Zapata) (Released)

Image found on Operation Iraqi Freedom Vol IV CD, PIN 505619.

Mark Steyn on Perspective

Found this via Curt at Flopping Aces. From Mark Steyn.

But, conquered and captured, an enemy shrivels, and you question what he ever had that necessitated such a sacrifice. The piercing clarity of war shades into the murky greys of post-war reconstruction. You think Iraq's a quagmire? Lincoln's "new birth of freedom" bogged down into a century-long quagmire of segregation, denial of civil rights, lynchings. Does that mean the Civil War wasn't worth fighting? That, as Al Gore and other excitable types would say, Abe W. Lincoln lied to us?
...
More than 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War - or about 1.8 percent of the population. Today, if 1.8 percent of the population were killed in war, there would be 5.4 million graves to decorate on Decoration Day.
...
Playing by Gore-Kennedy rules, the Union would have lost the Civil War, the rebels the Revolutionary War, and the colonists the French and Indian Wars. There would, in other words, be no America. Even in its grief, my part of New Hampshire understood that 141 years ago. We should, too.

Read the whole thing.

Saddam's Tribe

Hopefully I am not the only one to be heartily sick of the marketing push Discovery/New York Times is doing for their show on Saddam Hussein and his murderously dysfunctional extended family that airs June 4th.

I am not sure it is deliberate, but from the commercial promoting the show, it seems they have tried to make a Mexican soap-opera version of the Godfather. The sets are artificial, so phony because of the lighting and camera placement they remind me of the sets from Missiles of October. The guy they have playing Saddam looks more like a corpulent Latin gangster than Saddam; whatever happened to Saddam's doubles? But they manage to get a ringer for Uday.

Naturally I do not plan to watch this thing. Shoddy production values. Poor choice in actors. Almost comic in menacing over-bearing as they have Saddam whisper to a small child family is everything juxtaposed with Iraqi soldiers doing a Mexican firing-squad on Saddam's son-in-laws.

Book Review With Comments on Censorship

I finished reading Meredith's memoirs on his service aboard PT boats in World War II. At one point he talks in detail about the letters home being censored. They were not allowed to write about such things as enemy activity, unit locations, or boat strength.

All mail was censored. My mother never knew where I was for a year. As Exec of the boat, one of my duties was to read and censor the crew's mail, cutting out with scissors or razor blades anything that I thought might jeopardize our security; Marsh Roper censored mine. It was a task I didn't like. I felt I was prying into the men's affairs, intruding on their privacy, but it had to be done.

We listened to the news on the radio regularly and sometimes picked up Radio Tokyo, the Japanese propaganda station. Tokyo Rose, an American woman who worked for the Japs, liked to personalize her messages to us. She startled us several times by calling our PT skippers by name and boat number, with threats of retaliation for our barge attacks. How they obtained their information I don't know, but it made my censoring task more acceptable to the crew. - pg 115

Overall I tremendously liked this book. Ted Meredith took the letters he had mailed to his mother, mixed in research from other books like Devil Boats and At Close Quarters, and shared stories from the two PT crews he served with in the Pacific and Mediterranean to create a very personal view of the PT war that is worth reading. Even when his 23 year old views of the Papua New Guineans is to call them Fuzzy Wuzzies, apparently like everyone else in the PT force did, and complaining the local women are unattractive. Or when he talks about how many eggs his crew ate or how many times they had steak in letters to his mother.

Then there is the incredible moment when his boat PT 129 is ordered to ferry Gen. Douglas MacArthur between two islands. Meredith is worried sick about protocol because the whole crew, including him, are dressed barely in skivvies; but when MacArthur comes aboard the general doesn't bat an eye. Meredith does some impressive feats of seamanship to bring MacArthur smartly to the dock only to ruin everything on the departure by bending a prop because he had to show off some more. The whole event seemed so fantastic that it caused Meredith 50 years later to doubt it really happened until one of his crew said it was because of that incident he still smokes a briar pipe.

Keeping Memorial Day Sacred

I will let the national Commander of the American Legion Paul Morin explain why Memorial Day should not be used as yet another red shirt moment by anyone.

We Americans need to remember why Memorial Day is special. It's not about picnics or trips to the beach. It's not about making pro- or anti-war statements. It's not about supporting political candidates. It's about honor, duty and the ultimate sacrifice. It's about people who have decided that the United States is worth dying for.

Meanwhile in Iraq, American forces liberated 42 civilians from the sadistic and brutal clutches of Al-Qaeda. I would call this a moment akin to the first American forces arriving at the gates of a concentration camp nestled in a German forest. And why the likes of Al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are the true purveyors of evil and suffering, not the United States military as some imply for selfish reasons.

The Last Normal Class

To kick off Memorial Day I stumbled across this little fact while reading one of the PT boat books I had ordered. The book is called Lt. Ted Meredith, USNR, PT Boat Officer - Stories from 50 years ago.

That summer 850 of the 1,000 men in the Harvard class of 1942, the "last normal class", went into the armed services. - pg 16

Why they are called the Greatest Generation. I think they earned it.

Between Iraq and a Hard Peace

Cox and Forkum

The Democrats finds themselves in a corner of their own making. They first alienated conservatives by imposing a withdrawal timetable, this was followed by them larding on the monetary pork which outraged people who voted Democrat last November to toss greedy Republicans out, then they tried to outlast President Bush and shoved even more people into the anti-Democrat crowd - hence their approval rating of a measly 29%, and now they have inflamed their own side with the removal of the timetables.

Where can Reid and Pelosi go now? To shore up their agenda? What else will they betray for a short term gain? Will they switch to the Republican party just to get re-elected? I would not put it past them to think voters are that dumb. Which says buckets on why they should not be in leadership positions. Bill Clinton can pull this kind of stuff off because he is such a good schmoozer, Reid and Pelosi are bush league in comparison.

Keyhole View

I used to hear the adage that politics is the art of the possible. Recently Democrats in the House and Senate came to their senses on an important matter. After 100 plus days of failure in their quagmire to micromanage the war and force the United States to withdraw; they admitted defeat, redeployed, and seem willing to send to President Bush a 'pressingly' urgent suplemental funding bill now stripped of withdrawl time tables and maybe pork barrel projects.

Alas some in the Democratic Party are not happy over this. As some Los Angeles Times readers clearly show in their letters to the newspaper.

• A Democratic Congress was elected in November with a clear message to get us out of Iraq. - Eleanor Cohen
• We Democrats need bold, consistent leadership to withhold all tax dollars until our president, the only person responsible for the safety of our troops, signs legislation with a clear program for withdrawal. - Kelly Hayes-Raitt
• And just like that, I'm no longer a Democrat. Looks like we've replaced the rubber-stamp Republicans with the rubber-spine Democrats. - Peter Magill

When did November become a clarion call on retreat? I seem to recall the endless drumbeat over a 'culture of corruption' and of 'we have a plan' but never any outright calls of withdrawl leading up to that sea change in Congress. It was only after November that the Democrats actually tried to act on their secretly whispered plans, the plans they never uttered in public least the average voter react in outrage and keep the Republicans in office. So now that they have had to backtrack on their obstructionism, they are paying the price among their base. Here lies the perils of one issue politics, it is akin to peering through a keyhole and thinking that is the whole world you are seeing.

Armed Forces Day

How many millions of Americans this past weekend just went about life as normal never realizing the 20th was Armed Forces Day? Probably millions did, tuned into their iPods while they fretted over their normal worries. Meanwhile in Iraq, soldiers and allies continue to search for their three missing comrades with families back home worried sick.

This past Friday, some of the wounded soldiers from Walter Reed were honored by their comrades in the Pentagon. This has become a Friday tradition at the Pentagon.

Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. “My hands hurt.” Christ. Shut up and clap.

And another soldier, Bill Thomas, who was wounded on the muddy humid field of battle called VietNam while assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade has presented President Bush with one of his three Pruple Hearts.

"We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds," Thomas said.

If you missed Armed Forces Day then give a moment of quiet thanks now to those soldiers whos service and sacrifice has granted you a busy weekend to pursue your concept of happiness.

Update 1100Z24052007 - Body found floating in the Euphrates River has been identified as one of the three missing soldiers. The deceased is identified as 20 year old Pfc Joseph Anzack of California. No word on the other two soldiers as the search continues.

James Earl Carter

It takes some chutzpah to announce to the world that President Bush is something akin to the worst president ever and to accuse out-going Prime Minister Tony Blair of being Bush's lapdog.

For shame Jimmy Carter. The man who told people that all that is left is a downward spiral of malaise and to wear a sweater while the oil crisis deepened to say this? The man who negotiated away the Panama Canal so now we find the People's Republic of China, via a proxy, administering the canal. Who's idea of being forceful in the face of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan was to keep the US Olympic team home. The 'statesman' who talked the Shah of Iran to leave quietly so Ayatollah Khomeini could turn Iran into a radical Islamic state. The 'humanitarian' who allowed the now exiled Shah into the US for medical treatment that triggered the seizing of the American embassy in Tehran. The 'resolute' President who, after much dithering, ordered a downsized Pentagon to launch an audacious rescue mission of the hostages that failed because it was too complex and riven with intra-service rivalries.

I had thought the former president named Carter had reached his nadir with the comments virulently against Israel and his blind affirmation of Hugo Chavez seizing dictatorial power over the formerly democratic Venezuela. Alas I was wrong. With these words Carter has crossed the Rubicon and reached his Dixie Chick moment. He should heed General Douglas MacArthur's words of 'old soldiers never die, they just fade away,' instead of the narcissistic politician's mantra of 'any press coverage is good coverage.'

Do-Nothing Democrats - Execpt Obstruct

Back in November I was a bit fearful what a circus the Democrats would make of things, comparing them to kids in a candy store.

Boy did I misunderestimate them in the depth of their fecklessness, stupidity, and corruption.

They spent 86 days on an 'emergency' funding bill for the military that managed to head to the lower left corner of the graph to create a non-optimum solution that President Bush, acting more quickly - after all he did not take a vacation like Congress did during their passing of this bill, killed the bill with a stroke of a pen given him by the father of a fallen Marine. I wonder how Jack ex-marine Mr. ABSCAM Murtha felt about that? Truthfully I don't care what that greedy unscrupulous dastard feels, he is part of the problem.

Pelosi and Murtha being too busy to listen to General Petraeus except via a teleconference. Petraeus could have conducted that from Baghdad, except earlier he did and most Democrats skipped it. How can they offer any alternative to the current strategy if they do not attend such briefings? The truth is, they can not. Reading the transcripts is not the same as asking the guy speaking. Assuming Rep. Silvestre Reyes knows the difference between Shia and Sunni by now, Pelosi put him in charge of the House Committee on Intelligence versus Rep. Harmon who had been the senior Democrat before the Democrats took over, alas Rep. Harmon had gotten in a personal tiff with Pelosi so Pelosi tossed Harmon.

These are people who are not serious about anything except their pet projects. What are their pet projects? Well they got President Bush to sign a hike in the minimum wage into law and so far that is their only victory. The House and Senate just passed a law to expand the scope of what a person can be charged for as a hate crime, this is scheduled to become President Bush's third veto because of how it oversteps what the Federal government is Constitutionally allowed to do. And now I read the Democrats want to divert intelligence funding to study the impact of global warming on national security. Not only is this a ridiculous waste of funding, it is also micro-management of the intelligence community; it would be akin to telling the CDC to focus on herpes while ignoring Hemorrhagic Fever.

In the Senate, things have not been much better. Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY], in a blatant attempt to reconnect with the far-left for her Presidential bid, has teamed up with Sen. Byrd [D-WV] to rewrite the AUMF that sent the US and its allies into Iraq to include a five year sunset clause which would force the US out before the end of this year. This has as much chance of passing as a snowball does lasting in Baghdad.

And before I leave the Senate, lets talk corruption. I am still boggling over the possible amount of profiteering Sen. Diane Feinstein [D-CA] accumulated over her time on the Senate MilCon committee as she helped funnel money to two companies owned by her husband by her actions. The price I have heard is over $1billion, which in the la-la land of DC is called real money. Makes Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham [R-CA] and Rep. Willian 'Cool Cash' Jefferson [D-LA] pikers. And how strange that Feinstein stepped down from the MilCon committee about the same time her husband sold off the companies.

As for the emergency funding bill that got sent back to Congress. The Democrats have seen it blow up in their face this plan to force a retreat. Right now about the only person with a lower approval rating than Congress is Olmert of Israel who hovers at 2% approval. So now the Democrats are jettisoning the time lines while currying reluctant Republicans to pass the new version. Why are they so assiduously courting Republicans now? By getting rid of the time lines, the House has offended the out of Iraq crowd led by the likes of Rep. Maxine Waters who now plan to vote against this new version.

This is what the American voters got by voting Republicans out of office. The Democrats got into power promising to be different. Well Democrats are good at selling a bill of goods, but lousy on delivering. We have even seen the 100 day promise morph into 100 hours in session and now that promise has also vanished. That is one thing the Democrats are good at, moving the goalposts to mask their failures.

Update: Mike is right. The minimum wage hike was attached to the 'emergency' war funding bill as an added incentive for President Bush to sign it. Which means in the first FIVE months of this year, this Congress has done nothing but grandstand for the media. Wow that is different than the previous Congress.

Monty Trek

Camelot song set to scenes from the original Star Trek series. Much silly.

We Win, They Lose

First Name* Last Name* Email* Address City State select AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MNMS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY ZIP Yes, I'd like to receive updates about staying involved. I'm a blogger and I'd like to help. Blog URL:

To: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Harry Reid, U.S. Senate Democrat Leader

Congress has passed and President Bush has vetoed H.R. 1591, the Iraq Surrender Act of 2007.

This legislation, which you worked to pass, sets a timetable for surrender. It pulls the rug out from under our troops. That is shameful and wrong.

Your actions have already emboldened the enemy. Violent jihadists now know that the elected leadership of Congress would undermine the troops by holding their funding hostage to demands for surrender.

This Congress would bring us back to the dark days of the 1970s, when the world doubted our staying power. Except only much worse. Withdraw in April 2008, and on May 1, Iraq becomes an unchecked den of terrorism at the heart of the Middle East -- a new base for the same people that struck our homeland on September 11th.

I stand with our troops. I stand for victory. I support the President's veto and will urge my representatives to vote to sustain it.

There can be one and only one outcome in Iraq: We win, they lose.

Posting note, there is supposed to be some Java script at the end, but the code keeps corrupting on me so I get Tag is broken error messages. Link should take you to web site: We Win, They Lose.

Car Quiz

This is the last online quiz I will take, for now. Promise. :)

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry. And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

They know me don't they? Wowser.

Online Democrat Test

To be fair and balanced[tm], took the other quiz. If I thought the questions on the Republican test were funny, these are a riot. Enjoy.

You Are 8% Democrat

If you have anything in common with the Democrat party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch conservative, and nothing is going to change that!

How Democrat Are You?

Online Republican Quiz

Well isn't this special. :)

You Are 72% Republican

You have a good deal of elephant running through your blood, and you're proud to be conservative.You don't fit every Republican stereotype, but you definitely belong in the Republican party.

How Republican Are You?

Evil

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.
...
The plot was uncovered Saturday, when troopers in the Salaheddin province found detonating wire across the street from the school. They picked up the wire and followed its trail, which led to the school. Once inside, they found an explosive-filled propane tank buried beneath the floor. There were artillery shells built into the ceiling and floor, and another propane tank was found, the military said.

Michael Moore's 'minute-men' have truly stooped to a new low in their quest to practice the most evil scheme ever conceived in a sick mind. Iraqi contractors had placed the propane tanks and artillery shells in a school for girls.

According to the 1954 Hague Conventions, recognized military forces are forbidden from using buildings like schools for the carrying out of military operations. But since these thugs are not part of any recognized military they are mercenaries subject to summary execution when found.

To deliberately kill innocent girls who are only there to learn is such a descpicable act, I will not shed any tears if they are shot like rabid dogs. It is shades of Beslan and plain sick.

The Voice of Experience

The joy of collecting old books is finding nuggets that gather in relevance as they get older. Amidst the hoard of books nestles one of my Dad's Army footlockers that I have filled with many issues of Reader's Digest. Occasionally I will go exploring through these magazines; I say occasionally because each time I pick one issue up, within an hour I find I am halfway down into the footlocker. Ah what grand story shall I find this time? Or what hidden diamond of truth?

So there I was sorting through these magazines, putting aside ones' with thought provoking articles just begging me to read them when I found one I should immediately post a snippet of. The title is 'The Hazards of Negotiating With the Communists' by Admiral Arleigh Burke in the October 1968 issue. Admiral Burke was involved in the first year of negotiations with the communists during the Korean War. At the end he offers his suggestions on how to negotiate and I find these principles can be applied to many others whom the President of the United States faces across a negotiating table.

• Recognize that communists regard the conference table a part of the battlefield, a propaganda platform from which they will try to win what they failed to win on the battleground. Never make a concession for which there is not an exact reciprocation.
• Insist that an acceptable truce must be achieved within a short, specified time period. If the enemy procrastinates, do not hesitate to break off the talks.
• Never be afraid to threaten new military force if it seems necessary, and always be prepared to follow through. Whatever your intentions, never promise not to use nuclear weapons; there is no reason to free your enemy of this worry.
• Require your enemy to earn your trust with deeds. Never assume that you can take his word for anything.
• Recognize that far from triggering a world war, a firm negotiating stance will make such a war more unlikely.

Veto

Well after 85 days, the 'emergency' funding bill made it out Congress with Nancy Pelosi finally reading it to be delivered upon the 4th anniversary of President Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' speech to President Bush, who promptly kept his promise and veto'd the bill with its $20 billion in pork.

Now will they double down like John 'Pink' Edwards called them to do? Or will they finally give the troops the funding they need for ammo and armor without storage sheds for peanuts thrown in?

Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Nancy Pelosi, and Jack Murtha; the world watches and wonders.